You can take a snapshot of a virtual machine. After you take the snapshot, you can revert the virtual machine to the snapshot, or remove the snapshot.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine is not connected to a named disk.

Note: Snapshots do not capture NIC configurations.

Procedure

  1. On the Virtual Data Center dashboard screen, click the card of the virtual data center you want to explore and from the left panel, select Virtual Machines.
  2. Click Card Icon to view the list in a card view and, optionally, arrange the list of virtual machines from the Sort by drop-down menu.
  3. From the Actions menu of the virtual machine for which you want to take a snapshot, select Create Snapshot.
    Taking a snapshot of a virtual machine replaces the existing snapshot if there is any.
  4. (Optional) Select whether to snapshot the memory of the virtual machine.

    When you capture the virtual machine's memory state, the snapshot retains the live state of the virtual machine. Memory snapshots create a snapshot at a precise time, for example, to upgrade software that is still working. If you take a memory snapshot and the upgrade does not complete as expected, or the software does not meet your expectations, you can revert the virtual machine to its previous state.

    When you capture the memory state, the virtual machine's files do not require quiescing. If you do not capture the memory state, the snapshot does not save the live state of the virtual machine and the disks are crash consistent unless you quiesce them.

  5. (Optional) Select whether to quiesce the guest file system.
    This operation requires that VMware Tools is installed on the virtual machine. When you quiesce a virtual machine, VMware Tools quiesces the file system of the virtual machine. A quiesce operation ensures that a snapshot disk represents a consistent state of the guest file systems. Quiesced snapshots are appropriate for automated or periodic backups. For example, if you are unaware of the virtual machine's activity, but want several recent backups to revert to, you can quiesce the files.

    You cannot quiesce virtual machines that have large capacity disks.

  6. Click OK.

Results

The snapshot allows you to revert your virtual machine to the most recent snapshot.