Create and recover a snapshot under ESXi hypervisor

Restore virtual Ubuntu server using snapshots

For this short blog I am using an ESXi 4.1 hypervisor on an actual hardware and a virtualized Ubuntu server. I will try do demonstrate a quick and easy restore procedure of the VMs that the free version of the vSphere 4.1 package let's us use. The steps are followed with in an screen shot terms.

Firs let us see the inital setup of the vClient for the ESXi 4.1 free version.

From this screen we can see a couple of VMs that are running on one ESXi host. In the root of the file structure I have created a folder called TEST. After this I will create a snapshot of the virtual machine. 

After a while the process of snapshot creation is finished.

On the next step I will SSH to the Ubuntu server and delete the created TEST under the root of the file structure. This folder is important to us , so I will delete it.

Now, with the folder lost I have to revert to the previous state of the VM. This can be done via the Snapshot manager consoled under the current VM options.

And after a couple of second we can verify in the console log that the machine has been successfully restored.

Now what is left , is to check if the folder and a single file are back where they belong.

The folder TEST is reverted to its former location without any errors. This is a very cool feature vSphere technologies let's us use but it cannot be a true backup system. Snapshots are not meant to be a robust method of backup and recovery. If the files containing a virtual machine are lost, its snapshot files are also lost. 

We can look at this technology similar to the Microsoft VSS, that is used for ESXi VMs. One should always store the .VHD files on another location for a true backup system.

Feel free to comment.

Thanks.