Is there anyway to create a snapshot for a virtual machine on a different datastore (possibly dedicated for the VM snapshot) or at least is there a way to consolidate VM snapshots into one datastore?
We are using the snapshots as a backup/restore mechanism for changes and for Symantec NetBackup functionality and we don’t want to increase all of our current datastores permanently just to do snapshots.
We are using the snapshots as a backup/restore mechanism...
Never ever consider snapshots as backups! I strongly recommend you read http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015180 to see how snapshots work. The snapshot files are all in use by the VM, so placing them on e.g. a different - slower - datastore could even lead to performance issues. To avoid such issues VMware changed the default location for snapshots in vSphere 5, so the snapshots are created in the same folder as their parent disks.
André
I totally agree with a.p., that snapshots should not be used as a backup or disaster recovery mechanism. Vmware has a Different Product for Backup and data recovery purposes which Vsphere Data Recovery software Appliance, also known as VDR. In Vsphere 5, you may integrate upto 10 VDRs per Vcenter instance and 1 VDR can manage upto 100 Virtual machines. The backup mechanism is much faster and small in size as VDR uses both CBT (Changed Block Tracking) and Deduplication.
Thanks for the responses I was not to clear...I use the snapshots to do the backup then destroy afterwards. My problem is two systems in particular which have a 10TB and 30TB DB so the changes happening are substantial so the Delta disk grows rapidly while the Backup is taking place. So it was a plan to place the Snapshot Datastore seperate from the working directory to minimize the performance hit on the working datastore. Also allowing me to size a Datastore just for snapshots that can be created backed up then deleted on an ongoing cycle. As you can imagine my backup window inlcudes working hours to complete these larger systems.
This KB will instruct you how to configure the VM's vmx file to make the snapshot go to a datastore of your choosing:
Good luck.