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VMware Workstation 5.5

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Taking a Snapshot

Use the Snapshot menu on the Workstation toolbar to take a snapshot.

1. Choose VM > Snapshot > Take Snapshot

2. Type a name for your snapshot.

Every snapshot must have a unique name. If you type the name of an existing snapshot, a warning appears and you must enter a different name.

3. If you wish, you may type a description for your snapshot.

Descriptions are useful to identify differences between similarly-named snapshots. Descriptions appear in the snapshot manager.

4. Click OK.

Snapshot Actions as Background Activity

Taking a snapshot is not instantaneous. When you take a snapshot, you can continue working while VMware Workstation preserves the snapshot in the background. You can enable background snapshots in the Priority tab of the Preferences window. See Snapshots. Enabling background snapshots for a host with slow hard disks may affect performance. If you experience significant performance problems when taking or restoring snapshots, turn off this option.

If you take another snapshot or revert to one before Workstation completes a pending snapshot operation, a progress dialog box appears. When this occurs, you must wait for the pending snapshot operation to finish before the next snapshot or resume operation begins.

Note: If you select a snapshot in the snapshot manager before that snapshot is complete, Workstation displays an error message: The screen shot of the snapshot does not yet exist. This message does not indicate a permanent problem. When the snapshot is complete, a screen shot for the snapshot becomes visible in the snapshot manager, and no warning appears when you select that snapshot.

When Can I Take a 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 has finished before taking a snapshot.

For legacy virtual machines and multiple disks in different modes, the following exceptions apply.

  • Snapshots and legacy virtual machines — you must upgrade a legacy virtual machine to Workstation 5 before taking a snapshot. For information on upgrading the virtual machine, see Upgrading VMware Workstation. For more information about using Workstation 5 with virtual machines and snapshots created under Workstation versions 3 and 4, see Snapshots and Legacy Virtual Machines.
  • Snapshots and multiple disks in different modes — You must power off the virtual machine before taking a snapshot if the virtual machine has multiple disks in different disk modes. 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 taking a snapshot.

    • Changing Disk Mode to Exclude Virtual Disks from Snapshots

    Before you attempt to change the disk mode, you must power off the virtual machine and delete any existing snapshots.

    To exclude a disk from all snapshots.

    1. Choose VM > Settings.

    2. Select the drive you want to exclude.

    3. Click Advanced.

    4. Select Independent on the advanced settings panel. You have the following options for an independent disk:

  • Persistent — changes are immediately and permanently written to the disk. All changes to an independent disk in persistent mode remain, even when you revert to a snapshot.
  • Nonpersistent — current changes to the disk are discarded when you power off or revert to a snapshot.

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