Any issues, consolidating 30 snapshots in one go

[nh4vm]

Hi

I am working for a client at the moment, which has a VM set up with a schedule for taking snapshot every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening. From what I've been told, the manager thinks that his vmware guy used to delete the snapshots manually, but unfortunately the guy had a serious heart attack and are now off sick for several months. which has therefore now accumulated 30 snapshots.

It's a vSphere 5 patch one envirionment, and the server is a Windows 2008 R2 64bit print server.

I want to consolidate all the snapshots, and my question is this: have anyone had to consolidate so many (30) snapshot at once ?, and did they have any issues with it ?. Also, would it be better to consolidate one snapshot at the time, instead of do a consolidate all at once ?.

Any thought or previous experiences would be very much welcome, as well as any known pitfalls.

Kind regards

nh4vm

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

I didn't try it myself yet, but since the supported maximum of snapshots is 32, you should have no issues using "Delete All". Please double check that the number of snapshots which show up in the VM's folder on the datastore is the same (or less) as the snapshots shown in the Snapshot Manager.

André

[nh4vm]

Hi André

Good idea, I will check the numbers both in the GUI and in the datastore match before I do anything. I will probably have to delete them one by one, since they want to keep one snapshot. I will have to wait until Thursday morning, before I'm allowed to do it, so it's doesn't collide with other work they have ongoing.

I will let you know how it goes.

nh4vm

[EdWilts]

If you can afford the downtime and have the free space, a much safer alternative would be to shut down the guest and clone it.  That way if there are any issues, you can always boot the original one while working on a plan b.

It's also not just the number of snapshots you have but the size of those snapshots.  If you've got 30 of them and they're 50GB each, you're going to be in trouble...

[nh4vm]

Hi EdWilts

If I'm not remembering completely wrongly, I should be able to clone the VM even as it's running ?. But I must admit I would much rather as you suggest shut it down, just to be on the safe side. We can afford the downtime, so I will do so. And I have enough space on other datastores, so that won't be a problem.

Luckily all the snapshot files are not no where near 50GB, but around 4.2GB each, which I guess is enough taking into consideration how many there are.

I am planing on doing this Thursday morning, and will shut the server down and do the clone before I consolidate the snapshots. Will let you know how things work out.

Thanks for you help and good suggestion both of you.

Kind regards

nh4vm

[jdptechnc]

You have 30 snapshots of about 4.2GB each?  If you do a delete all, it would probably work, but depending on your storage, it might take a long while, maybe even time out in vCenter (but continue to run on the host).  But it should work.

[nh4vm]

Hi Guys

Sorry for me being late replying to this post, but I have just had a nasty enfluenca/inflamation in my throat for more than a week now.

I have got it sorted now. I took the precaution of first shutting down the VM completely, then I created a full clone and started the VM up again. I deleted the snapshots one by one, because the company wanted to keep a few at all times. But I consolidated 30 out of 33 snapshots without any problems what so ever.

Thank you very much for you help guys, very much appreciated.

nh4vm

[nh4vm]

Hi Guys

Sorry for me being late replying to this  post, but I have just had a nasty enfluenca/inflamation in my throat for  more than a week now.

I have got it sorted now. I took  the precaution of first shutting down the VM completely, then I created  a full clone and started the VM up again. I deleted the snapshots one  by one, because the company wanted to keep a few at all times. But I  consolidated 30 out of 33 snapshots without any problems what so ever.

Thank you very much for you help guys, very much appreciated.

nh4vm

[nh4vm]

Hi Guys

Sorry for me being late replying to this  post, but I have just had a nasty enfluenca/inflamation in my throat for  more than a week now.

I have got it sorted now. I took  the precaution of first shutting down the VM completely, then I created  a full clone and started the VM up again. I deleted the snapshots one  by one, because the company wanted to keep a few at all times. But I  consolidated 30 out of 33 snapshots without any problems what so ever.

Thank you very much for you help guys, very much appreciated.

nh4vm