VMware Snapshot Monitoring

Why is monitoring snapshots important?

VMware snapshots are a critical part of the backup process, and they can increase the load on the disk if left unchecked. This fills up the datastore space, and the system is unable to write or commit more snapshots, which can lead to many problems including VM failure.

Monitoring snapshots is crucial to:

Avert VM failure
Snapshots along with VM disk (VMDK) files eat up datastore space leading to datastore and VM performance issues or failure.

Avoid disk contention
Snapshots can quickly increase in size, leading to unprecedented failures and space issues. This can also lead to disk storage contention.

Reclaim VM space
An increased number of snapshots in a VM can degrade its performance. This, in turn, can affect the associated datastore and also the other peer VMs that are a part of the same datastore.

Plan resource allocation
It's important to understand the snapshots space split-up in VMs before planning to quiesce the guest file system.

Manage VM space issues using a VMware snapshot monitoring tool

Monitor snapshot space metrics so that you can delete aged and unwanted snapshots, and free up datastore space. Automatically add your datastore snapshots for monitoring, and keep track of them in real time. You can also plan your resource allocation by monitoring the frequency and the number of snapshot files being stored.

Visualize space split-up and hierarchy of your snapshot monitor

Obtain a clear picture of the VM and snapshot hierarchy so that you can understand which snapshot is under which VM. You can also view the snapshot space split-up chart categorized VM-wise. This will give you an idea of what percent of a VM's space is occupied by snapshots.

Predict snapshot space requirements using AI

View the predicted percentage of your datastore space snapshots will occupy after seven days with AI-powered insights. With this, you can assess when your datastore will be full, and either clear old VMDK files or add more resources. These predictions can help you avoid disk resource contention.

Predict how much percentage of space snapshots will occupy after 7 days

Study the growth rate of snapshots

Monitor how your snapshots grow over time. With this, you can analyze abnormal peaks, and reclaim wasted space by deleting old, unused, and large snapshots. You can also view data on how much space snapshots occupy in a particular VM along with the number of snapshots per VM.

Identify VMs by snapshot size and age

Identify top VMs based on snapshot size and age. VMs bloated with snapshots are prone to performance issues. Snapshots are the first place to look when a VM is running slow. Identifying top VMs by snapshots helps you foresee issues like these so you can avoid them by regularly clearing space or consolidating snapshots.

Receive alerts when snapshots breach the configured thresholds

Receive alerts to keep your snapshots under control

Configure threshold limits for key snapshot performance metrics including age, size, and number of snapshots per datastore, so that you can avert performance degradation issues by taking corrective measures in advance. Receive instant alerts via emails, SMS messages, voice calls, push notifications, and RSS feeds.

Why is monitoring snapshots important?

Avert VM failure

Avoid disk contention

Reclaim VM space

Plan resource allocation