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I have a question regarding backups and VM's that contain snapshots. If i have a VM running in vmware with 2 snapshots and a snapshot based backup runs overnight, will it delete all of my snapshots or will it only delete the one it creates during the process?

user3225054
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  • It depends on the backup solution. What product are you using? Also Snapshots are BAD. – Zapto Jul 13 '16 at 20:20
  • I know snapshots are bad, i'm preaching it as well. This is a bit of an odd situation for me as well. The solution in question is netbackup. I never used netback up and someone made me question what i already know. I didnt have much luck finding info myself so decided to ask on here. – user3225054 Jul 13 '16 at 20:22
  • Are you using the Host backup or Agent backup of the guest? – Zapto Jul 13 '16 at 20:25
  • Host backup, no agent. – user3225054 Jul 13 '16 at 20:27

1 Answers1

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NetBackup uses the VMware Storage API’s and shouldn’t cause issues but;

VMsnapshots Snapshots are bad! this is a good explanation why

Snapshots can cause issues and depending on the delta size of the file it may not get played into the backup routine. I have seen issues in the past where chains of snapshots have been missed. I would recommend that you either use agent based processing for these VM’s if you cannot clean the snapshots or export the VM as a template (a better solution if you keeping snapshots for “backup").

Community
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Zapto
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    Not all snapshots are bad. It depends on the implementation. ZFS for example excels at snapshots. I know in this instance you're talking about VMware snaps, and I agree with you on that point. However, you need to qualify that you are talking about VMware snapshots, not snapshots in general. – EEAA Jul 14 '16 at 00:24