Learn how to take and manage snapshots of your virtual machines.
VMware allows you to take snapshots, so you can save and possibly revert a VM to its previous state.
Requirements
- Being an administrative contact of your VMware on OVHcloud infrastructure (to receive login credentials)
- A user account with access to vSphere (created in the OVHcloud Control Panel)
Instructions
Take a snapshot
A snapshot allows you to capture a VM state. It provides a layer of protection for your VM before executing changes, allowing you to revert to that state if needed.
In the vSphere interface menu, go to the Hosts and Clusters dashboard.
Navigate to your VM, right-click it, choose the Snapshot menu, and select Take Snapshot.
By default, the snapshot will be named using the current date and time. You can customize the name and add an optional description.
If your VM is running, the snapshot process offers two options:
- Snapshot the virtual machine's memory: This will save the VM RAM state, helping with certain applications that may not have committed changes to disk. It should also make your snapshot crash-resistant, meaning it can be reverted to without powering off the VM.
- Quiesce guest file system (needs VMware Tools installed): This will bring your VM to a state that is backup suitable, e.g., clearing buffers, committing changes to disks, etc.
If your VM is not running, those options are grayed out.
We recommend taking snapshots when your VM is turned off. If that is not possible, use the Quiesce option over the memory snapshot for added security.
Click Create when ready.
Manage snapshots
You can take multiple snapshots of a single VM by repeating the process above. Over time, snapshots will consume resources (especially storage) to be maintained, and can possibly affect VM performance. Below are the snapshot management options available.
In the vSphere interface menu, go to the Hosts and Clusters dashboard.
Navigate to your VM, right-click it, choose the Snapshot menu, and select Manage Snapshots.
Revert to snapshot
Select a snapshot from the list, choose the Revert button, and confirm your choice in the pop-up window.
If you only have a single snapshot or wish to revert to the last taken snapshot, you can speed up the process by right-clicking on your VM and choosing Revert to Latest Snapshot.
Delete snapshots
Select a snapshot from the list, choose the Delete button, and confirm your choice in the pop-up window.
You can also click Delete All in the Snapshots tab or by right-clicking on your VM. In the pop-up window, you can choose to delete all or delete snapshots that are older than n days.
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other VMware on OVHcloud or Hosted Private Cloud guides. You can also explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.