Answer to Question #289766 in Computer Networks for Timmy

Question

We created a snapshot (A) of a virtual machine on our VMware ESX host. Then we deleted 100 GB of data from the machine and made a snapshot (B), reverted back to snapshot (A), enabled CBT option, uploaded 100 GB of data to the machine and made a snapshot (C). Which snapshot would be bigger, B or C? Please explain why.

Answer 1

We created a snapshot (A) of a virtual machine on our VMware ESX host. Then we deleted 100 GB of data from the machine and made a snapshot (B), reverted back to snapshot (A), enabled CBT option, uploaded 100 GB of data to the machine and made a snapshot (C). Which snapshot would be bigger, B or C? Please explain why.

 

Answer:

Def:

A virtual machine snapshot is just an image of the state and data of virtual machine, captured and stored at a given point in time.

CBT- is Changed Block Tracking is an incremental backup technology for VMware virtual machines (VMs) it tells third party tool to copy these changed blocks, avoiding copies of entire VM thus reducing amount of data undergoing backup.

Its “C” which will become bigger-reason is that there is no way that say “C”revert back to A or B ,but C retained it.The snapshot file continues to grow in size when it is retained for a long period. This can cause the snapshot storage location to run out of space.