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I have a server with ESXi 5.5 installed. I recently wanted to add a new hard disk to one of the guests. After adding the virtual disk to it, I took a snapshot just to be sure that nothing would go wrong (which unfortunately did).

After taking the snapshot, I proceeded to setup the new hard disk in my guest OS. Some minutes later I noticed that the guest is no longer working due to the storage being full, so I removed a file in the datastore which I thought wouldn't be necessary, but turned out to be important for the virtual disk recently added (probably had something to do with the snapshot). Then I removed the new hard disk from the guest OS in the Hardware tab of Virtual Machine Properties, and was able to start the guest once again.

The problem is that now, the snapshot is growing, and I surely don't want that. Is it safe to remove it now that the guest is working? In the panicking moments of my guest OS being down, I once tried to go to that snapshot, but obviously failed due to the file I removed. Is removing that file is gonna be a problem also for deleting the snapshot? And what can I do to be sure nothing would go wrong?

Mohammadreza MontazeriShatoori
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1 Answers1

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Your snapshot will grow in size as the state of the VM ages.

To safely remove the snapshot:

  • Ensure your VM is in a safe state (If you're uncertain here, shut it down)
  • If possible, make sure the datastore running the VM has a recent backup
  • Open the Snapshot in the Vmware console and delete it
  • If you shutdown your system, power it on and check out the results.
Dan O'Boyle
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