How do I commit a snapshot if it doesn't show in the snapshot manager?

[sbroskey]

I have two snapshots located in a VM folder. However I want to delete or commit them but they don't appear under the snapshot manager in vcenter. How do I go about committing these snapshots? I need to clean them up, vreplicator is failing because there are to many open snapshots. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[runclear]

are you running esx or esxi?

If your using esx, login to the service console and run

vmware-cmd /datastore/server.vmx removesnapshots

If you want to confirm there are snapshots, do a directory list,

>ls -lha

if you see any vmdk's with _delta, those are the snapshot disks.

-

---

[admin]

HI,

Try selecting the VM to which the snapshots belong to and then go to it's snapshot manager.

Do you have permissions to delete snapshots?

Thanks.

*if you found this or any other answer useful, please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers*

[avlieshout]

• Go to the ESX console of the ESX host serving the VM using SSH

• Find the config_file_path of the VM

   vmware-cmd -l 

• Create a snapshot of the vm

   vmware-cmd <config_file_path> createsnapshot snapshot_name snapshot_description 1 1 

• Remove (Commit) the snapshots

   vmware-cmd <config_file_path> removesnapshots 

  This will remove the newly created snapshot AND the existing ones.

-Arnim van Lieshout

-

---

Blogging:

Twitter:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[sbroskey]

The snapshots do not appear in the snapshot manager.

Scott

Scott Broskey

Information Technology Manager

Boston Advisors, LLC

1 Federal Street 26th Floor

Boston, Ma. 02110

E-mail: Scott.Broskey@Bostonadvisors.com

Work Phone: 617-348-3150

Cell Phone: 617-901-5033

[puzzledtux]

I suggest that you use the VMware Converter to get your job done here!

[runclear]

Why would you convert a vm to simply remove a stale snapshot? ....

-

---

[puzzledtux · Accepted solution]

Its an alternate which I could think of in continuity to the other posters efforts to resolve the issue...I know for sure it works!

Besides I think you can create a new snapshot from the client and then try the option of DeleteAll from the snapshot manager.

[sbroskey]

I'm going to go with creating a new snapshot and the delete all option

as a first try. I will not be performing this until after hours tonight.

How does the manager know to delete all the snapshots if some are not

listed in the manager? My first thoughts with this are that it commits

snapshots that are seen in the manager. Does it actually search all file

extensions and commits all the extensions it finds?

Scott

Scott Broskey

Information Technology Manager

Boston Advisors, LLC

1 Federal Street 26th Floor

Boston, Ma. 02110

E-mail: Scott.Broskey@Bostonadvisors.com

Work Phone: 617-348-3150

Cell Phone: 617-901-5033

[avlieshout]

Snapshots are linked together through a CID-chain. Every snapshots knows its parent file.

When performing a deleted all, the commit process works through this chain from the active .vmdk file all up to the root .vmdk

The snapshot manager only shows the registered snapshots, which are in the .vmsd file.

-Arnim van Lieshout

-

---

Blogging: http://www.van-lieshout.com

Twitter:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

[sbroskey]

That is helpful thank you...

Scott

Scott Broskey

Information Technology Manager

Boston Advisors, LLC

1 Federal Street 26th Floor

Boston, Ma. 02110

E-mail: Scott.Broskey@Bostonadvisors.com

Work Phone: 617-348-3150

Cell Phone: 617-901-5033

[azn2kew]

The easiest way to commit all snapshots is to use P2V Converter and clone from it so that all snapshots are merge to a new clean machine and tested it before youdelete old machine. You may see your snapshots with RVTools but wondering why snapshot manager doesn't see anything? Are you sure there is snapshots on that machines?

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[sbroskey]

Ok so I used the snapshot manager and took a new snapshot of the vm. I then used the snapshot manager and clicked on delete all. That committed and cleaned up all the snapshots, I made sure to power down the vm first. It worked successfully, thank you for the many replies....

Scott

[cnetbuild1]

Turning off the VM - is that a requirement?

[puzzledtux]

Nopes, its not a requirement. You can take/delete snapshots on a powered-on VM.