Snapshot question

[flube]

I'm using VMware vSphere to manage my virtual machines, and I frequently take snapshots for backup purposes. Lately, I've noticed that some VMs experience performance degradation after taking snapshots. What are the best practices for using snapshots in VMware, and how can I minimize their impact on VM performance?

[Lalegre]

Hello @flube,

Snapshot are not a backup solutions, they are meant to redirect writes to preserve a previous state for a short period of time. Having it for a long time could lead to performance degradation or even corruption.

[filipe_dias · Accepted solution]

Avoid running snapshots for extended periods; consider using VMware backup solutions

[scott28tt]

Snapshots are not backups.

Backups are backups.

[Mortuza1]

do not keep snapshot for more than 7 days.

[Valeriy87]

I agree with other colleagues that snapshots are not backup. Also, I recommend to review your VMs for snapshots and delete what you don't need already. It helps you to increase performance. If you have big infrastructure you can use a VMware Operations Manager (VMware Aria Operations) and see VM's snapshots on dashboard.

[abdulazizmustho]

always consolidate snapshot after any changing on the VM...it will be problem if size of Snapshot bigger than the parent

[kastlr]

Hi,

VMware did publish a KB article covering this.

Best practices for using VMware snapshots in the vSphere environment (1025279)

[AnaghB]

Hello @flube ,

If VM is running on snapshots then the performance will be affected. this is by design. Please follow the best practices for Snapshots from Vmware.

1. Do not run the VM on Snapshots for more than 72 hours.

2. Do not keep more than 1 snapshot for performance.

3. Schedule the backup at night in off production hours.

Please follow the above best practices for Snapshot based Backups.