Where to find the IaaS __Clone_SnapshotId used on linked-clone Blueprints in vRA?

[rszymczak]

Hi guys,

when creating IaaS linked-clone blueprints IaaS will create a entity VirtualMachineTemplateProperties with the PropertyName __Clone_SnapshotId and a PropertyValue of let's say 6.

This id is used to identify which snapshot to use for the linked-clone an can be found in the IaaS database. However: I can't tell where that number (6) can be found in vSphere.

If looking at the id of the snapshot in vCenter then it is for example snapshot-7380. Is there some kind of mapping happening in vRA IaaS between the vSphere snapshot ID and the IaaS snapshot ID? How to get the correct snapshot ID for IaaS?

[rszymczak · Accepted solution]

Okay so i finally tracked it down. Seems like vRA IAAS is using the snapshotTree id for linked-clone references. If you have access to the VC:VirtualMachineSnapshot you can find the id like this:

//snap is the provided VC:VirtualMachineSnapshot you want to use as linked clone reference
var vm = snap.vm;
var id = snap.id;
function findSnap(snapTrees, snapId)
{
  System.log("Searching SnapshotTree for id '" + snapId + "'...");
  for each(snapTree in snapTrees)
  {
  System.log("Checking snapTree '" + snapTree.id + "' with id '" + snapTree.snapshot.id + "'...");
  if(snapTree.snapshot.id == snapId)
  {
  System.log("Found matching snapshot! SnapTree id is: '" + snapTree.id + "'.")
  return snapTree.id;
  }
  else
  {
  var childSnaps = snapTree.childSnapshotList;
  if(childSnaps.length > 0)
  {
  System.log("Checking children...");
  return findSnap(childSnaps, snapId);
  }
  }
  }
  return null;
}

// Get the id like this
var snapTreeId = findSnap(vm.snapshot.rootSnapshotList, id);

Hope this saves somebody some time.