vSphere Client Version: 4.0.0
vCenter Version: 4.0.0
TL:DR – Highlight your Cluster > Storage Views Tab > Reports button > Check the snapshot space.
You can’t. You can’t just get a nice map or an overview of every snapshot listed for every VM. vSphere just doesn’t have the capability to do that for you, no matter how convenient it would be for you. If you’re doing anything like our ideal environment, we backup our VMs at a vmdk level using snapshot technology through VEEAM. It’s very reliable and really quick, especially if you’re using a SAN. Here’s how it works:
- Backup Begins
- A snapshot (basically a full image copy of the vmdk file) is taken
- VEEAM backs up the snapshot so the VM isn’t bogged down with anything other than I\O or bandwidth traffic, depending on how your network is set up
- When the backup completes, VEEAM deletes the snapshot
- Backup Ends
But VEEAM has some rules. There cannot already be snapshots taken of the VM. If there are, it will create its own snapshot as well, but it will delete them all at the end of the job. And even though its reliable, sometimes a snapshot will hang for some reason and not get backed up. Needless to say, there needs to be a way for administrators to view what snapshots have been taken in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. Granted, this method doesn’t give you the chance to see how many snapshots are taken, but you should be familiar enough with your environment to know based on the sizes of the snapshots:
Highlight your Cluster > Storage Views Tab > Reports button > Check the snapshot space
It should give you a good idea of where you’re at, without all the clicking. Cheers!
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