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Monitor VMware Snapshots

Manage the space requirements in your datastores by closely monitoring the snapshots and the space used by them. With key performance indicators and AI-powered insights, clear old snapshots and avoid datastore space issues.

Snapshots

Snapshots provide a changelog for the virtual disk and are used to restore a virtual machine (VM) to a particular point in time when a failure or system error occurs. Whenever a snapshot is created, a virtual machine disk (VMDK) file is created, and all changes are saved in that file.

Snapshots alone are not a full backup, but they are a critical part of the backup process. It's recommended that you clear old snapshots and retain only the latest ones for space constraints. When a datastore is full, snapshots are the first place to look for opportunities to clear space. On top of this, an increase in the number and size of snapshots can slow down the performance of VMs. Learn about VMware snapshots location.

Why monitor snapshots?

By enabling Snapshot Monitoring, you can:

  • Track individual snapshots by their age and size, and identify abnormal snapshots.
  • Obtain a split-up of the overall snapshot space in a datastore by grouping it with VMs.
  • Identify the trends of snapshot size and count at the VM level.
  • Obtain AI-powered predictions on space available in a datastore for snapshots to help in capacity planning.
  • Configure thresholds for global or individual snapshots for their age or size, so that you'll receive notifications when there are old snapshots that may have been forgotten about.

Prerequisites

  • You can monitor only those snapshots that are associated with the VMware datastore and VMware VM monitors that are monitored by Site24x7.
  • You can obtain VM-wise space split-up stats for all the VMware VM monitors monitored by Site24x7.

Adding a monitor

Add new snapshots for monitoring by enabling Snapshot Monitoring from your desired datastore's Snapshots tab.
For your existing datastore monitors, enable Snapshot Discovery by editing the monitor.
Add your snapshots for monitoring now.

Performance metrics

Track the performance of all your snapshots, and predict future trends based on a set of key performance metrics.

Threshold profiles

Set threshold limits for the performance metrics, and receive alerts when these thresholds are violated.

Licensing

VMware Snapshot Monitoring is licensed as a basic monitor.

You can monitor up to 20 snapshots per VMware Snapshot Monitor.

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