What will be deleted when I delete snapshot?

Question

Using ESXi 5.0, I had a disk which was converted from VHD to VMDK using Winimage which left me with a sparse VMDK.

I tried to snapshot the VM after importing it which caused a problem. I believe I manually pointed it back to the original VMDK which then allowed it to boot again. Snapshot Manager shows an active snapshot from that date still.

I would like to delete it but want to be certain exactly which files will be deleted from the datastore since this was not a typical successful snapshot. How can I verify? Does the snapshot manager just use the VMX file? Can I view the vmsn file using the cat command via ssh?

This is a standalone host with no vcenter, just vsphere client and SSH into the terminal.

Answer 1

Is there enough space in your datastores to create a duplicate copy of the VM?

If yes, clone the VM and use the clone to test deleting the snapshot.

If you don't already have any software for this, I would recommend Trilead's VM Explorer (http://www.trilead.com/). It's very lightweight, free, and will work well for this type of task.

Install VM Explorer on any computer that is on the same network as your ESXi host. Set up and run a "replication" job. This will create a clone of the VM, snapshots and all. Add the replicated VM to your ESXi host (if you didn't have VMX do that). Test deleting the snapshot on the clone to verify it works as you expect/need.

This is probably obvious to you but just to be safe - remember that you probably don't want both VM's powered on and connected to your network at the same time. I would recommend disconnecting the vNIC on the clone if you decide to power it on for testing. Use the console access in vSphere client to interact with the VM.