Creating snapshots in a different location than default virtual machine directory

May 4th, 2009 | Author: Hany Michael

I just noticed this great tip from a VMware's KB! Sometimes I face this issue when everyone can't stop asking for snapshots or can't let go! The cumulative storage growth could be severe sometimes that may get my VMFS volume full. In this KB article you can change the snapshot location for specific VMs to another place, and have a piece of mind!

Power off the virtual machine.
Add the following line to the VMX configuration file for the virtual machine: workingDir="<new_path_location>"
For example: workingDir="/vmfs/volumes/46f1225f-552b0069-e03b-00145e808070/vm-snapshots"
To reload virtual machine configuration, run the command: # vimsh -ne "vmsvc/reload <VmId>"
When you power on the virtual machine, snapshot files and VSWP files are created in the new location.

KB URL: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1002929

Posted in Misc.

Hany Michael

Oops! I didn't notice that except now! I'll research more to see if this can be applied in 3.x or not, I’ll give it a try also on my VI3.5 Lab and update the post. I don’t think there is anyone still running on 3.0.x!

thanks a lot for the note.
Stu

That is cool, however the KB says ESX 3.0.x only :(