Move snapshots between machines

Question

I have two VMs one(VM2) was created from a template of the other(VM1). I added VM1 to SCVMM library without cloning it first, now I can't access it, deploy it, or create VMs using it.

To create VM2 I copied the VHD across the network to the host machine and created VM2 using that. The problem is that VM2 does not have the software that I need and its on one of the snapshots from VM1.

Is there away to take the snapshot from VM1 and apply it to VM2 so that VM2 = VM1 before I added it to the library and lost it.

DanBig · Answer 1 · 2012-07-10T13:28:29.747

1

The only way to move snapshots is to export the VM, and import it at the new location.

In your case, best bet is to export VM1 and its snapshot containing what you need, move the exported folder to the new host, and import it there.

edited Jul 10 '12 at 13:28

answered Jul 10 '12 at 13:22

DanBig

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So I can't do it? – ELSheepO Jul 10 '12 at 13:23
No, snapshots aren't movable, only the VHD files are. – DanBig Jul 10 '12 at 13:28
When I try to deploy the VM back to the host it gives me a error that \file.vsv is not a valid path, do you know anyway around this? And when I try to create a VM it hangs on deploy files, step 1.1. – ELSheepO Jul 10 '12 at 13:31
I dont know what a .vsv file is. – DanBig Jul 10 '12 at 13:33
Its a management file of somesorts. – ELSheepO Jul 10 '12 at 14:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 10 '12 at 16:30

A snapshot is a block-level image of what was on disk and, if the VM was running, a copy of memory and processor state, along with a few other odds and ends.

You're essentially asking if you can take two different hard disks that, while similar, contain different stuff, and merge them, causing software from one of them to be installed on the other. You might be able to make a utility that mounted both file systems, compared them, and then migrated the software on one to the other, but that would really be application-level virtualization, not machine level virtualization.

So the short answer to your question is no, you can't do what you want, even if you had gracefully exported the snapshot before creating VM2.

Move snapshots between machines

2 Answers2