6.0.1

The virtual machine power and data states are returned to the states they were in at the time you took the
parent snapshot. If the parent snapshot is a memory snapshot, the virtual machine is restored to an on
power state.
Revert to a Snapshot
Revert to a snapshot to restore the virtual machine to the state of that snapshot.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Revert to snapshot privilege on the
virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click the virtual machine and select Manage Snapshots.
2 In the Snapshot Manager, click a snapshot to select it.
3 Click Revert to to restore the virtual machine to the snapshot.
The Revert to command lets you restore the state of any snapshot.
4 Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.
5 Click Close to exit the Snapshot Manager.
Deleting Snapshots
Deleting a snapshot removes the snapshot from the Snapshot Manager. The snapshot files are consolidated
and written to the parent snapshot disk and merge with the virtual machine base disk.
Deleting a snapshot leaves the current state of the virtual machine or any other snapshot untouched.
Deleting a snapshot consolidates the changes between snapshots and previous disk states and writes to the
parent disk all data from the delta disk that contains the information about the deleted snapshot. When you
delete the base parent snapshot, all changes merge with the base virtual machine disk.
Deleting snapshots involves large amounts of disk reads and writes, which can reduce virtual machine
performance until consolidation is complete. Consolidating snapshots removes redundant disks, which
improves virtual machine performance and saves storage space. The time it takes to delete snapshots and
consolidate the snapshot files depends on the volume of data that the guest operating system wrote to the
virtual disks after you took the last snapshot. The required time is proportional to the amount of data the
virtual machine is writing during consolidation if the virtual machine is powered on.
If disk consolidation fails when you delete a snapshot or delete all snapshots and you notice a degradation
in virtual machine performance, you can view a list of virtual machines to determine if any files require
consolidation, and if so, run a separate consolidation operation. For information about locating and viewing
the consolidation state of multiple virtual machines and running a separate consolidation operation, see
“Consolidate Snapshots,” on page 201.
Delete
Use the Delete option to remove a single parent or child snapshot from the
snapshot tree. Delete writes disk changes between the snapshot and the
previous delta disk state to the parent snapshot.
You can also use the Delete option to remove a corrupt snapshot and its files
from an abandoned branch of the snapshot tree without merging them with
the parent snapshot.
Delete All
Use the Delete All option to delete all snapshots from the Snapshot
Manager. Delete all consolidates and writes changes between snapshots and
previous delta disk states to the base parent disk and merges them with the
base virtual machine disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
200 VMware, Inc.