This is ESXi 5.5.
I know that the VMWare KB is very against long running snapshots, however I do not know of another way to do this.
Let's say I have a base Linux system and want to spin up a unique VM for each user. I could simply snapshot the system and give it to the user. If the user messes it up or needs a refresh I could simply delete the snapshot and create a new one.
I am aware of VMWare templates however let's say my base image is 10GB. That mean each user's footprint will be (say 5 users):
- 10GB (base) + ~1GB for user files
- 10GB (base) + ~1GB for user files
- 10GB (base) + ~1GB for user files
- 10GB (base) + ~1GB for user files
- 10GB (base) + ~1GB for user files
55 GB
If my understanding is correct, the snapshots only store the DIFFs between the base so that would give:
- 10GB Base
- ~1.1GB for user files, log updates, etc.
- ~1.1GB for user files, log updates, etc.
- ~1.1GB for user files, log updates, etc.
- ~1.1GB for user files, log updates, etc.
- ~1.1GB for user files, log updates, etc.
15.5GB
The snapshot solution seems so elegant and such an efficient use of space where as templating is so redundant.
Are long running snap-shots really that bad and is there a better way to accomplish this?
is there a better way to accomplish this?
- A storage system (e.g. SAN) that supports de-duplication would deal with this just fine.