"eam-snapshot" snapshot on Service VMs

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Guest Introspection USVMs, or 3rd party SVMs deployed by EAM, contains a snapshot "eam-snapshot" visible through snapshot manager.

This may trigger alarms if any SVMs configured to detect lingering snapshots.

Environment

VMware NSX for vSphere 6.4.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.1.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.0.x

Resolution

"eam-snapshot" is a snapshot of an Agent VM made, after the VM was provisioned and before it was activated and potentially modified, basically a "clean snapshot".

This is useful in making link-clones of Agent VMs(link clone is a clone that doesn't immediately copy the disks of the source VM). Linked cloning is not possible without a snapshot and it is the fastest way of provisioning a VM.

Cloning doesn't need to be done from an existing snapshot. However, a snapshot is implicitly created. If cloning is done without a snapshot, the clone operation on a VM can't be concurrent and it would clone its current state which is undesirable.

If you remove the snapshot, EAM doesn't consider a VM without a "eam-snapshot" eligible for cloning, thus any new host added to the scope will invoke a full deployment of a VM with downloading OVF, etc., which is the most time-consuming deployment operation.

If you are sure that no hosts will be added, including host being removed and re-add to the scope of the agency which deploys those VMs, you could delete the snapshots.