A more detailed view of a Virtual Machine Snapshot Removal – VMware

For all those who want more detailed infromation when removing snapshots from a virtual machine or troubleshooting issues, this post will show you use ESXI’s Shell to gather more information about the snapshot task.

You will need to enable shell, and load putty.

We will be utilising the vim-cmd as is “Supported in both ESXI 4.x and ESXI5.x”

For more detailed monitoring, type these commands to confirm that the consolidation / deletion are active.

In a SSH shell session on the ESXI host that is performing the consolidation, snapshot deletion task, run the following Command:

vim-cmd vimsvc/task_list

You see a task similar to:

 # vim-cmd vimsvc/task_list
 (ManagedObjectReference) [
 'vim.Task:haTask-33-vim.vm.Snapshot.remove-448571851'
]

Now we have the details of the Snapshot which is running, we can now request for more info.

Type from within the SSH Shell :

The following Cmd will provide you with more info on the snapshot.

vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info <followed by the task listed from the first command>

vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info haTask-33-vim.vm.Snapshot.remove-448571851

(vim.TaskInfo) {
 dynamicType = <unset>,
 key = "haTask-33-vim.vm.Snapshot.remove-448571851",
 task = 'vim.Task:haTask-33-vim.vm.Snapshot.remove-448571851',
 description = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) null,
 name = "vim.vm.Snapshot.remove",
 descriptionId = "vm.Snapshot.remove", - Runnning Process
 entity = 'vim.VirtualMachine:33',
 entityName = "SCVYOMOSSSQL", - Virtual Machine Name
 state = "running", - The status should be in running, not in a error state
 cancelled = false,
 cancelable = false,
 error = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
 result = <unset>,
 progress = 99, - progress of task 
 reason = (vim.TaskReasonUser) {
 dynamicType = <unset>,
 userName = "vpxuser",
 },
 queueTime = "2014-12-18T11:38:43.607887Z",
 startTime = "2014-12-18T11:38:43.608304Z",
 completeTime = <unset>,
 eventChainId = 448571851,
 changeTag = <unset>,
 parentTaskKey = <unset>,
 rootTaskKey = <unset>,
 }
 ~ #

As you can see from the exported text and screenshot, you are provided with a detailed view of the task, what state the task is in , and the percentage of completion. I have made some comments in orange to show where to look.

I hope this helps, when reviewing snapshot removals and troubleshooting.