I have a VMware server that will be retired within the next three months due to age. I have been getting alerts that there are snapshots that require consolidation. When I try to consolidate them, it errors out with Input/Output error it seems the storage disks are having some issues.
There are three virtual disks on this particular VM, and they each have almost 150 snapshot files, and they keep getting made. I have tried the suggestion of manually creating a snapshot then clicking "Delete all snapshots" but that fix the issue.
Today, I attached a NAS, so I could move the VMDKs to it. I also found out that you can change the "working directory" for where the snapshots are kept, and I thought I might be able to change that to the NAS, but I am not sure if you can do it with existing snapshot files?
I was thinking that maybe this would work:
- Shut down the VM
- Edit the .vmx file to add the line to point to the working directory
- Move all the snapshot files to the new working directory
- Fire up the VM
That sounds too easy, though and I am sure there is a whole bunch missing. I guess my question basically is, how is the best way to handle this? I suppose I *could* manually copy all the VMDK files and related snapshots to the NAS manually, then remove the VMDKS and re-add them as existing drives? If I do that, I assume I would select the most recent snapshot file as the VMDK to use?
Thanks! :-)