A snapshot captures the entire state of the virtual machine at the time that you take the snapshot.
You can take a snapshot while a virtual machine is powered on, powered off, or suspended. If you are suspending a virtual machine, wait until the suspend operation finishes before you take a snapshot.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: on the virtual machine.
If the virtual machine has multiple disks in different disk modes, power off the virtual machine before you take a snapshot. For example, if you have a special purpose configuration that requires you to use an independent disk, you must power off the virtual machine before you take a snapshot. This requirement applies only to snapshots that include virtual machine memory.
Procedure
1 | Select a virtual machine.
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In the virtual machines and templates inventory tree, select a group of virtual machines and select a virtual machine from the list on the right.
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Search for a virtual machine and select it from the search results list.
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2 | Right-click the virtual machine and select . |
3 | Type a name for the snapshot. |
4 | (Optional) Type a description for the snapshot. |
5 | (Optional) Select the Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory check box to capture the memory of the virtual machine.
Note
Capturing the virtual machine's memory results in a powered off snapshot, even if the virtual machine is powered on.
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6 | (Optional) If a virtual machine is powered on, select the Quiesce guest file system (Needs VMware Tools installed) check box to pause running processes on the guest operating system so that file system contents are in a known consistent state when you take the snapshot. |
7 | Click OK. |