6.0.1

The Snapshot Manager window contains the following areas: Snapshot tree, Details region, command
buttons, Navigation region, and a You are here icon.
Snapshot tree
Displays all snapshots for the virtual machine.
You are here icon
Represents the current and active state of the virtual machine. The You are
here icon is always selected and visible when you open the Snapshot
Manager.
You can select the You are here state to see how much space the node is
using. Revert to, Delete, and Delete all are disabled for the You are here
state.
Revert to, Delete, and
Delete All
Snapshot options.
Details
Shows the snapshot name and description, the date you created the
snapshot, and the disk space. The Console shows the power state of the
virtual machine when a snapshot was taken. The Name, Description, and
Created text boxes are blank if you do not select a snapshot.
Navigation
Contains buttons for navigating out of the dialog box.
n
Close the Snapshot Manager.
n
The question mark icon opens the help system.
Taking Snapshots of a Virtual Machine
You can take one or more snapshots of a virtual machine to capture the settings state, disk state, and
memory state at different specific times. When you take a snapshot, you can also quiesce the virtual machine
files and exclude the virtual machine disks from snapshots.
When you take a snapshot, other activity that is occurring in the virtual machine might affect the snapshot
process when you revert to that snapshot. The best time to take a snapshot from a storage perspective, is
when you are not incurring a large I/O load. The best time to take a snapshot from a service perspective is
when no applications in the virtual machine are communicating with other computers. The potential for
problems is greatest if the virtual machine is communicating with another computer, especially in a
production environment. For example, if you take a snapshot while the virtual machine is downloading a
file from a server on the network, the virtual machine continues downloading the file and communicating
its progress to the server. If you revert to the snapshot, communications between the virtual machine and
the server are confused and the file transfer fails. Depending on the task that you are performing, you can
create a memory snapshot or you can quiesce the file system in the virtual machine.
Memory Snapshots
The default selection for taking snapshots. When you capture the virtual
machine's memory state, the snapshot retains the live state of the virtual
machine. Memory snapshots create a snapshot at a precise time, for example,
to upgrade software that is still working. If you take a memory snapshot and
the upgrade does not complete as expected, or the software does not meet
your expectations, you can revert the virtual machine to its previous state.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
196 VMware, Inc.