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netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Cannot revert to or delete snapshots

Host: ESXi 5.5

VM: Windows Server 2016

I am trying to clean up snapshots (way too many) for a VM.  I cannot seem to revert to or delete any snapshots. I tried with both VCenter Server (6.5 Appliance) and the Windows Client.

Both act as if the Snapshot is being reverted or deleted successfully (ie, Completed).  However, the Snapshot is still there and and the current snapshot has not changed.

I don't want to select Delete All, because I would like to keep some of the Snapshots.

Any ideas?  Thanks.

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5 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Do you still need any of the VM's snapshots? If not, "Delete All" from the Snapshot Manager should do the job.

André

netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the suggestion.  I would like to keep some of the Snapshots.  I updated the question to reflect that.  It is strange that I am getting a "success" status, but the Snapshot is just not deleted. Although deleting all Snapshots might ultimately be what I have to do.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

How do you verify that nothing is changed? Maybe some screenshots will help to understand what exactly you are doing, and what you expect.

  • Reverting to the latest snapshot in a chain won'tmodify the snapshot chain, but only discards any changes (i.e. resets the latest snapshot .vmdk file).
  • Reverting to another snapshot in a chain will create a new snapshot with the selected one as its parent.
  • Deleting a snapshot will merge its data into its parent snapshot, and delete the current snapshot file(s). In case you delete a snapshot, that's no at the end of the chain, its child snapshot will then be chained to the deleted snapshot's parent.

André

netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

a.p.​ Thanks for the help.  I just ended up deleting and recreating the VMs. The snapshot tree seemed totally unsalvageable.  Even Delete All Snapshots appeared to succeed, but blimey if the snapshots weren't still there afterwards.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

If recreating was an option, then fine, but if you ever have that weird situation again, remember that there's always also a Plan B, which - in this case - would have been to manually clone the VM, which automatically consolidates all the snapshot, which are in the snapshot chain.

André

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