Smell Notebooks to understand why a single snapshot should not be used for more than 72 hours
This evening when I entered my colleague's home, his son was copying the content from his notebook to his notebook. Hold on!!! Did I confuse you :p
Ouu! I have a flashback.
It was a hectic day after solving a customer's challenge. He couldn't migrate his VM. After troubleshooting we found it to be the 'Snapshots'. Guess how old they are??
More than 2 years.
More often than not snapshots are left unattended for a longer duration. No deletion. No consolidation. Let us understand why it is not recommended to leave snapshots unattended.
Today, the kid forgot his science notebook and hence jotted content in a new notebook. This is Synonymous to taking a snapshot (say Snapshot A). After returning from school, he started copying the content to his old notebook. (This is Snapshot Consolidation). Let us analyze some scenarios.
If the kid doesn't copy today's 2-page content to his previous notebook and continues writing on his new notebook, he needs to carry two notebooks every day. Apparently, snapshot grows by the day. The sooner you consolidate it is easy. Else, it gets hard.
Do not use a single snapshot for more than 72 hours.
Imagine, if the kid starts with a new notebook whenever he forgets and never consolidates. He will end up carrying so many notebooks for his science class alone.
Maximum of 32 snapshots are supported in a chain. However, for a better performance use only 2 to 3 snapshots.
Hope the kid and I helped you to remember the concept of snapshot forever.
For more information on Snapshots refer to the below links (Strictly technical).
Understanding VM snapshots in ESXi / ESX (1015180)