Snapshots

[Edward143]

as i know snapshot is a point in time copy of the virtual disk.. what is this mean ???.
snapshot will copy only the pointers ??? anyone can explain this or any docky available ??? how to restore the snapshot??? how much space required for snapshot?? how to backup this snapshot ??

[Greybeard]

hi, there are two types of snapshot, Fully allocated and Demand allocated. One requires a vdisk the size of the one being copied, the other "grows" as more data is copied (watch those thresholds, run out of space and it Will fail). A snapshot copies the pointers and as data in the original vdisk changes the snapshot copies the original data into itself so it maintains a copy of the data as it was when the snap was started (the "Point In Time"). Over time as the data in the source vdisk changes the amount of data in the snapshot vdisk will grow. You can restore back to the point in time from the Snapshot to the original vdisk or you can present the snapshot to another Host to be backed up.