Command line to commit snapshot

[Dav_s]

I have the xxxx.vmdk (Original disk) and xxxx-nnnn.vmdk (snapshot delta file). How can I commit the snapshot to the the virtual disk. I've lost the original vm and these two files are all I have.

[Paul_Lalonde]

Assuming that there's only one snapshot...

vmkfstools -i xxxx-nnnn.vmdk newdisk.vmdk

This will commit the changes in the snapshot to the new vmdk file that gets created.

Paul

[mattpound]

If thats all you've got left you could :

1. Create a new vm (similar to the orginal)

2. Take a snapshot

3. Replace the vmdk files with you recovered ones.

4. Try and commit the snapshot

I have no idea if this will work, so keep a copy of your original files.

[snapper_]

I need to commit my (delta files) snapshot to a VM that cannot power on, from you posts i notice you say vmkfstools -i does offline commit?

After migrating SAN's one VM which had a snapshot called "Consolidate Helper", but we do not use VCB and have it nowhere installed, is not able to power on because it is unable to locate ons of 3 VMDK files.

After struggling with the VM, notice in VM settings in VC that it is unable to determine the size of the disks nolonger. Whe I tried to browse to file location of disks, I can only see the original VMDK files but then if I power on VM it goes back to 31Jan2007 before the snapshot.

This VM original had 3 VMDK files spread over two LUNs with similar names.

In VM folder there are multiple delta files for each of the 3 VMDK disk belong to the VM.

How can I commit the delta's to get latest info into one VMDK on command line, while VM is power off?

Tx

[hugop]

Did you fix this problem?

[snapper_]

yes i did manage to commit the snapshot offline, while VM was powered off.

I open the parent vmdk file with nano:

SRV01.vmdk

\----

---

version=1

CID=e3422786

parentCID=ffffffff

then made note of CID value to be used in delta vmdk reference.

I also made note of the LUN UUID under /vmfs/volumes/xxx-xxx-xxx/SRV01 because it is reference by the delta(child) vmdk file

then i opened the snapshot delta(child) vmdk file with nano:

SRV01-000010.vmdk

\----

---

version=1

CID=44da2775

parentCID=e3422786

Made sure the ParendCID match the parent initial vmdk file.

The line in the delta vmdk file referening to location of parent must be referening to correct UUID, I had my initial EVA LUN's and new EVA 8000 LUN presented and these UUID's changed thus it could not locate the parent disk.

then i used vmkfstools -i to commit or called clone the delta and parent vmdk file into single vmdk file with all changes into one.

"vmkfstools -i SRV01-000010.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/xxx-xxx-xxx/SRV01-version2/NewDisk1.vmdk

SRV01-000010.vmdk is the meta data file it does not contain actual data the file SRV01-000010-delta.vmdk contains the data and in the meta data file it referes to the parent vmdk file and this is how it nows which 2 files to combine and make into on new file call NewDisk1.vmdk at new folder location.

hope this help

[mberthiaume130]

This worked perfectly. Thanks!!

[admin]

Phew - this post is spot on thanks.

[rvandijck]

Thanks for this spot on post.

I have a more difficult situation at hand: I have a VM machine with 3 delta files (xxxx-nnnn.vmdk) and the original disk (xxxx.vmdk) but no snapshot files (committing the snapshots from the VC GUI appears to succeed but the files still appear in the datastore).

Is it possible to commit the snapshots from the command-line using vmkfstools -i ?

Or is it possible to create a new VM on a different VMFS data store with the same name, then create 3 snapshots and replace the created delta files with the ones from the original VM?

Any help is muchely appreciated!

[nanair01]

Hey Guys,

The Vm may not be powering on since the .vmx file may be pointing to a .vmdk file which is not present within the data store(it may have been deleted). So pointing it in the .vmx file to the newer .vmdk file should fix this problem.

And to commit snapshots from the console you can use vmware-cmd command. The following link will help you in it.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100231...

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