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If I create a snapshot with: 'vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create' I can then transfer the file that creates to another system, or even to another vmware ESXi system.

Setting aside the fact that snapshots are not the best backup practice, how viable is this snapshot ? Is it, indeed, a snapshot of the entire system that I can then run on a different ESXi system (or on the same one, if I pull it from backup storage) ?

Let's assume that my command has a "1" at the end, which tells vim-cmd to quiesce the VM first before snapshotting...

user227963
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It will be pretty useless and you won't be able to transport a snapshot to another system for use. They depend entirely on the original VMDK's.

Again, this isn't the purpose of VMware snapshots. They're really meant to be temporary and have major implications for storage performance and disk space.

ewwhite
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Snapshotting a VM means that the original VMDKs are fixed, all changes will go to a diff file. So you would have to copy the VMDK files themselves. (As far as I know there are two: A vmdk file describing the virtual disk and a "flat" file containing the data.)

However, I would consider this a pretty crude and unprofessional way to do backups of VMs. It might be OK for test or development VMs, but not for VMs that host production workloads.

Did you have a look at VDP? I think it comes with vSphere... it's a bit limited but maybe it's good enough for you.

edit: Similar question: Why don't people just use rsync to back up vmware guests?

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Mario Lenz
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