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Vanaaken
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Space needed to apply a snapshot?

We have a server that is thin provisioned and was at 32Gb when we created a snapshot to do an upgrade everything went fine so now want to make the changes permenent by removing the snapshot, however the two snapshot files are 18.67Gb big and I only have 13.7GB free, I should get 4Gb when I shut the VM down as thats in use by the swap file, giving me approx 17.7Gb is this enough space to remove the snapshot?

Meant to say we are using ESXi 4.0 and its the free licence.

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Rubeck
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In vSphere 4.0 U2 the commit process has been improved, where the  "Delete all" commits snapshots just like André suggested doing  manually..

Duncan wrote a nice article explaining this, which made me go "weeeee, finally"" ones I read it back then:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2010/07/05/changes-to-snapshot-mechanism-delete-all/

Just in case you ARE running with U2..

/Rubeck

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a_p_
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... the two snapshot files are 18.67Gb big...

When you say "files", what's the size of each individual snapshot? Depending on the sizes you may want to commit one snapshot after the other (always deleting the one closest to the base disk). Can you please post a screen shot of the datastore browser window showing all files and the details (names, sizes, date/time).

André

Rubeck
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In vSphere 4.0 U2 the commit process has been improved, where the  "Delete all" commits snapshots just like André suggested doing  manually..

Duncan wrote a nice article explaining this, which made me go "weeeee, finally"" ones I read it back then:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2010/07/05/changes-to-snapshot-mechanism-delete-all/

Just in case you ARE running with U2..

/Rubeck

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a_p_
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It's not exactly the same. Although the snapshots will be merged into the base disk in the same order, all the snapshot files are deleted after the last snapshot has been merged. This could make a difference with thin provisioned disks and low disk space!

The way I described merges one snapshot and then deletes the associated snapshot file, which frees up the disk space for merging the second one.

André

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Rubeck
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You're absolutely right, André.. Good point which ofc needs to be considered...

/Rubeck

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