Tag Archives: snapshots

Taking snapshots of VMware ESX 4 running in a VM

VMware ESX 4 can virtualize itself, and by using a special undocumented configuration setting it is now possible to take snapshots of virtual VMware ESX 4 systems. Continue reading

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Responsible Thin Provisioning in VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere 4 offers thin provisioned virtual disks backed by management that enables safe use in a production environment thanks to advanced accounting of all provisioned space. Continue reading

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VMware vSphere 4 has a Snapshot Alarm

Snapshots have always been a powerful feature of VMware ESX — even in production deployments.  There are tons of innovative tools and scripts out there to monitor snapshots — just check out this new one from Virtu-Al. If you happen … Continue reading

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Hyper-V snapshots: not for production

One of the greatest things about virtual machines is the ability to take snapshots, which can be used to quickly roll a VM back to a known state. Previously, I have written about some of the shortcomings with Microsoft’s Hyper-V … Continue reading

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IGT Part 5: Hyper-V snapshots are not gone until the VM is powered off

Unlike VMware ESX, when administrators delete snapshots on Hyper-V, the disks are not merged until the VM is powered off — potentially filling up disks. Continue reading

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