Are there any formal vmware documents that discuss the impact of not removing old snapshots of virtual machines - i.e. performance issues they can cause on the VM itself?
Our admin doesnt seem to see these as a risk at all - but I have read old snapshots can affect the performance of the VM - but I cant seem to locate any formal documentation where VMware themselves discuss the potential issues of not removing old snapshots. To demonstrate its not an old wives tale.
You are absolutely correct ... this not only impacts the VM, but also the backend storage array which could affect other VM's too.
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279
Message was edited by: Jon Munday - additional URL added
You are absolutely correct ... this not only impacts the VM, but also the backend storage array which could affect other VM's too.
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279
Message was edited by: Jon Munday - additional URL added
jrmunday already mentioned the important aspects - let me add one point from a recovery point of view.
All vmdk types that require a working VMFS journal are more fragile than those types that dont.
That means VMs that use snapshots, thin provisioned vmdks or sesparse vmdks are unusable when the VMFS journal is unreadable.
Thick provisioned vmdks can still be usable even without the VMFS journal.
