Removing Snapshots and Deleting Linked Virtual Machines

After you have created a group of linked virtual machines, you can remove a snapshot that was the basis for a linked virtual machine, or delete a virtual machine. Those actions affect disks in the linked virtual machine group. Perform the actions when connected to a vCenter Server system for disk consolidation or deletion.

• Snapshot removal – During snapshot removal, the snapshot metadata is also removed, and the virtual machine from which the snapshot was taken is no longer shown as having snapshots. If you remove a snapshot while connected to the ESXi host directly, shared disks are not consolidated and unnecessary levels of delta disks might result. If you remove a snapshot while connected to a vCenter Server system, shared disks are not consolidated, but unshared disks are consolidated.
• Virtual machine deletion – When you delete a virtual machine by directly connecting to the ESXi host, shared disks are not deleted. When you delete a virtual machine by connecting to a vCenter Server system, shared disks are not deleted, but unshared disks are deleted.
  Caution: Delete all linked virtual machines before deleting the source virtual machine from which they were created, so that you don’t have orphaned or corrupt disk files on your file system.