6.0

Prerequisites
n
Ensure that you are familiar with the Delete and Delete all actions and how they might affect virtual
machine performance. See “Deleting Snapshots,” on page 193.
n
Required Privilege: Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot on the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager.
2 In the Snapshot Manager, click a snapshot to select it.
3 Select a delete option.
Option Description
Delete
Consolidates the snapshot data to the parent snapshot and removes the
selected snapshot from the Snapshot Manager and virtual machine.
Delete All
Consolidates all of the immediate snapshots before the You are here
current state to the base parent disk and removes all existing snapshots
from the Snapshot Manager and virtual machine.
4 Click Yes.
Consolidate Snapshots in the vSphere Client
The snapshot Consolidation command searches for hierarchies or delta disks to combine without violating
data dependency. After consolidation, redundant disks are removed, which improves virtual machine
performance and saves storage space.
Snapshot consolidation is useful when snapshot disks fail to compact after a Delete or Delete all operation
or if the disk did not consolidate. This might happen, for example, if you delete a snapshot but its associated
disk does not commit back to the base disk.
The Needs Consolidation column in the vSphere Client shows the virtual machines that need to be
consolidated and the virtual machine's Summary tab shows a Configuration Issues consolidation message if
the virtual machine needs to be consolidated. If you see errors for failed conditions, such as running out of
disk space, correct them and run the consolidation task.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot
Procedure
1 Display the Need Consolidation column in the vSphere Client.
a Select a vCenter Server, host, or cluster and click the Virtual Machines tab.
b Right-click the menu bar for any virtual machine column and select Needs Consolidation from the
menu.
The Needs Consolidation column appears. A Yes status indicates that the snapshot files for the virtual
machine should be consolidated and that the virtual machine's Tasks and Events tab shows a
configuration problem. A No status indicates that the files are OK.
2 To consolidate the files, right-click the virtual machine and select Snapshot > Consolidate.
3 Check the Need Consolidation column to verify that the task succeeded.
If the task succeeded, the Configuration Issues message should be cleared and the Needs Consolidation
value should be No.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client
194 VMware, Inc.