Reverting Training VM's

[Gaprofittit]

I have a question.  I have the new to revert VM's back to a particular state after a week of training.

Here is the scenario

I have five VM's, train1, train2, train3, etc.

The week starts of a training class but I need to rollback at the end of the week to delete the
data that has been entered throughout the week.

What is the easiest way to accomplish this and can I script it?  I'd prefer not to leave
an opensnapshot I roll back to but if that is the only way I can do that.

Thanks,

Greg

[Troy_Clavell]

If you have VMware View, this would be quite easy.  However, if you don't, you may think about creating a template from one of the VM's in question.  At the end of the week, you can destroy the existing and deploy new off the template.

Snapshot would work too, by creating a snapshot, then reverting to previous and delete all from there.  However, like you said, leaving snapshots active for an extended period of time is not ideal.

[pcerda]

Hi,

You can use nonpersitent virtual disks.  According to the documentation:

"The disk appears to operate normally, but whenever the virtual machine is

powered off or reverted to a snapshot, the contents of the disk return to their original state. All later changes are discarded."

You also can create Templates of the training VMs, and deploy them when you need it on the original state.

[Gaprofittit]

These are servers they connect to via  a web based app for training, they enter data etc that needs to be reverted at the end of the week.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

...if only for a week, snapshots may not be a bad choice, especially if for only 5 VM's and you have the storage capacity.