Delete Vmwar snapshots

so how to revert back to server.domain.com, and get rid of the snapshot as it is not needed, and it is just taking extra space.

Highlight the server.domain.com snapshot in Snapshot Manager, and select Go To.

This will Revert you to server.domain.com, once reverted back to this time, you can then delete the snapshot you do not require.

But when I highlight server.domain.com, all the buttons like GoTo, delete,etc...are grayed out.

the buttons will show up enabled when I highlight :
server.domain.com_vm-2647_1

I guess that s where the confusion is:

the base image is vm.vmdk

for instance,
1- I create the first snapshot and name it : beforefirstpatch110113
this will create Vm000001vmdk and start writing changes to it.

then starting deploying the patch and making changes, to my understanding all the changes will be written to vm00001.vmdk which is in fact the physical file of the "beforefirstpatch110113"

now if the patch did not work well, and start seeing issues on the VM, at this point are we going to select Delete to delete the beforefirstpatch110113 snapshot, or are we going to select Goto beforefirstpatch110113 ?

to my understand delete and Goto, both will merge the content of the snapshot to the base image. and we do not want Vm000001vmdk which is the physical file of (beforefirstpatch110113) to be merged to the base image.

how would we do that?

Thanks

Some of the Confusion, is because really the word DELETE should be called MERGE! (sometimes!).

I guess that s where the confusion is:

the base image is vm.vmdk

for instance,
1- I create the first snapshot and name it : beforefirstpatch110113
this will create Vm000001vmdk and start writing changes to it.

then starting deploying the patch and making changes, to my understanding all the changes will be written to vm00001.vmdk which is in fact the physical file of the "beforefirstpatch110113"

CORRECT.

now if the patch did not work well, and start seeing issues on the VM, at this point are we going to select Delete to delete the beforefirstpatch110113 snapshot, or are we going to select Goto beforefirstpatch110113 ?

If you DELETE the current snapshot, it will me MERGED with the parent disk. So your current machine will have all the broken patches.

You will need to REVERT (GoTo) the Previous Snapshot. You are here, is where you currently are! When you Revert (GoTo) it will state the Current State of Virtual Machine will be lost, unless it has been saved in a snapshot.

If you want to "travel" back and time between different states of a VM, before and after applying patches, create another Snapshot!

I know you are Expert in Vmware, but I believe the first snapshot created and displayed in Snapshot Manager represents the VM.vmdk and not the VM000001.vmdk
because when you select GoTo the first snapshot, it will stay displayed in Snapshot Manager, but the vm000001.vmdk file will be deleted....

if you highlight the first snapshot and select delete, the snapshot will disappear from the snapshot manager , and the contents of VM00001.vmdk will merge with vm.vmdk file, and the vm00001.vmdk will be deleted

in one of the links you posted it talks about:  delta.vmdk file
I do not know if it is different than the vm00001.vmdk

Snapshot Manager only shows and links to Snapshots, which are...0001, 0002.vmdk etc If you look at the very top (root) this represent the VM without a snapshot. e.g. check a machine with no snapshots, You are Here....is the parent virtual machine disk (vmdk).

if you look at the virtual machine settings, and virtual hard disk, you can easily tell which snapshot is being written to by the VM. Because the snapshot appears as the disk

e.g. 0001, 0002.vmdk

see my EE Article on Snapshots above.

if you highlight the first snapshot and select delete, the snapshot will disappear from the snapshot manager , and the contents of VM00001.vmdk will merge with vm.vmdk file, and the vm00001.vmdk will be deleted

CORRECT

delta.vmdk is an old term, which acually means the 0001 files are the child delta files.

Ok...hopefully this is my last comment before i close the thread.

when you have just one snapshot...then you Highlight it
if you select GoTo or delete....both ways will merge the changes to the original image?

I will set up the lab this week end and learn how snapshots work,,,,

Thank you

Be cautious about using Snapshots in Production, they can catch you out, and then can be EVIL!