Committing snapshots from within the Service Console

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information related to committing a snapshot that is present in a virtual machine, using the command line in the Service Console.

Note: This article is for ESX. To commit snapshots on the command-line of an ESXi host, see Committing snapshots on ESXi host from command line (1026380).

Resolution

VMware recommends having free space equal to the snapshots and base disk size before committing snapshots.

If you do not have enough free space, migrate to another disk that has enough free space and consolidate the snapshots into a new virtual disk file (VMDK).

To commit snapshots to a base disk from the command-line:

1. Find the path to the VMX file of the virtual machine either from the VMware Infrastructure/vSphere Client or by running this command:
   
   # vmware-cmd -l

/vmfs/volumes/volume-UUID-or-name/vm1/vm1.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/volume-UUID-or-name/vm2/vm2.vmx

2. Determine if the virtual machine has snapshots with this command:
   
   # vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/volume-UUID-or-name/vm1/vm1.vmx hassnapshot

The output looks like:
   
   hassnapshot() =

   or
   
   hassnapshot() = 1

If the result is not equal to one (1), there are no snapshots for the virtual machine and there is no reason to proceed further.
   
   
3. Remove (or commit) the snapshot by running this command:
   
   # vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/volume-UUID-or-name/vm1/vm1.vmx removesnapshots
removesnapshots() = 1

If the result is one (1), the snapshots have been successfully committed. If the result is something other than one (1), file a Support Request with VMware Support and note this KB Article ID in the problem description. 

Notes:

• This procedure deletes all snapshots on the virtual machine and commits the changes in the delta disks to the base disc. The base disc has all changes to the data.
• If this procedure does not work, there may be an issue with the snapshot information vmsd file. For more information. see Committing snapshots when there are no snapshot entries in the snapshot manager (1002310).

Additional Information

• For more information on the snapshot process in ESX, see Understanding virtual machine snapshots in VMware ESX (1015180).
• Committing snapshots when there are no snapshot entries in the Snapshot Manager
• Understanding VM snapshots in ESXi / ESX
• Snapshot Manager fails to detect snapshots of VMs
• 从服务控制台提交快照