VirtualBox automatically creates unwanted snapshots

[Naitrael]

Hey guys,
I'm having a severe problem using VirtualBox 6.0 with installed Extension Pack on Windows 10 64-bit right now.
I have created a Linux-Machine, on which I use FileZilla to move large files between Host and Guest.

Unfortunately for some reason I could not determine via Forum and Google search VirtualBox creates some kind of automated snapshots in the assigned folder.
On this machine I have not manually taken any snapshots at all and don't intend to because in this case it would not serve any purpose.
In itself this isn't a big problem, but if I try to move folders with a comprised filesize of >50 GB, these snapshots grow indefinitely until the disk is full.

The attachments show these seemingly automated snapshots within the \machine\snapshots folder as well as the lack of any snapshots registered within the VirtualBox Manager.

Really hope you can help me on this one, I never had any trouble with VirtualBox up until this very moment.

snapshot1.PNG (21.46 KiB) Viewed 2434 times

snapshot2.PNG (59.4 KiB) Viewed 2434 times

Thanks in advance!

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox doesn't have the ability to make automated snapshots. It can make snapshots by command-line, which can then be automated by batch files & scheduled tasks. But all that has to be set up manually. Do you have any scheduled tasks set up?

Snapshots can also be taken with the keyboard, HostKey + E, by default (HostKey is right Ctrl, by default). Are you by chance hitting ctrl-E for something in the guest, and then using the right Ctrl key to do so?

Is the "änderungsdatum" ("date last modified"?) January 10 or October 1? Seems that since today is October 1, maybe these snapshots all got made today. If I understand snapshots right, making a new snapshot causes older snapshots to not be changed anymore. So these all had to be made on the same day, and apparently within the same minute, provided that these dates are correct. But then it would be strange there's no snapshots above Current State.

Zip and post the guest's .vbox file, in the guest's folder, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab, and we'll see of these snapshots are being used.

[Naitrael]

I have not set up anything snapshot-related manually.

Can't completely exclude the hotkey-possibility, but I forgot to mention that these "snapshots" are being updated and expanded while the machine is running.
So I begin transferring the files, shortly after which the snapshots begin to increase in size, thus the same date last modified (yes änderungsdatum is date last modified).

That is what's puzzling me as well, as to my understanding snapshots can't be taken while the machine is running, right?

Uploaded the .vbox file.

[Martin]

Is the guest really running under the same user account as the attached screenshot?
Was the guest running at the time of the screenshot?
Can you please also attach the logfile (zipped) of the guest?

[Naitrael]

Yes, there is only one user account on this installation of windows.
No, it wasn't running at that time, since my disk has almost filled up due to the snapshots.

[scottgus1]

snapshots can't be taken while the machine is running, right?

Actually they can. All Virtualbox has to do is stop writing to the previous disk file and start writing to a new one.

By the way, I mis-read the keyboard combination for the take-snapshot command above. HostKey-E is "Take Screenshot". HostKey-T is "Take Snapshot". Oops.

A .vbox file with a real snapshot in it has an XML group starting with this line (with variations on ID's & times)

Code: Select all

<Snapshot uuid="{6bd759b1-abcf-4adb-8590-1f22770c3cdf}" name="Snapshot1" timeStamp="2019-10-01T12:00:46Z" stateFile="Snapshots/2019-10-01T12-00-46-338480900Z.sav">

Your .vbox file doesn't have this XML group, which would indicate why no snapshot appears in image 2.

However your guest's drives:
"S:/vServerCache.vdi"
"T:/vArray0_Parity.vdi"
"T:/vArray0_Storage.vdi"
all have snapshot drives as sub-XML-keys to these drives. Each drive has one of the three files shown in the first image attached as a snapshot.

<HardDisks>
  <HardDisk uuid="{dba75e93-7884-44f8-858d-76748fb94649}" location="S:/vServerCache.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
    <HardDisk uuid="{a047bfb7-a171-4e1d-bed0-fe9b7e80d185}" location="Snapshots/{a047bfb7-a171-4e1d-bed0-fe9b7e80d185}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
  </HardDisk>
  <HardDisk uuid="{d438d7ff-e27d-41cb-97ac-df8115b31ebd}" location="T:/vArray0_Parity.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
    <HardDisk uuid="{599d0bc2-ae8c-4b2c-9fcf-c7a03907dfb8}" location="Snapshots/{599d0bc2-ae8c-4b2c-9fcf-c7a03907dfb8}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
  </HardDisk>
  <HardDisk uuid="{5d01142a-4ddd-4969-82c3-79d41ccfef02}" location="T:/vArray0_Storage.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
    <HardDisk uuid="{e5108f82-7667-4c9f-8257-6df0ee6ff15b}" location="Snapshots/{e5108f82-7667-4c9f-8257-6df0ee6ff15b}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
  </HardDisk>
  <HardDisk uuid="{a16cb19f-5556-4269-b2d2-1c6c64349756}" location="Bananarama2.0.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal"/>
</HardDisks>

And the snapshots are loaded into the disk drives, not the original drives:

<StorageController name="SATA" type="AHCI" PortCount="3" useHostIOCache="false" Bootable="true" IDE0MasterEmulationPort="0" IDE0SlaveEmulationPort="1" IDE1MasterEmulationPort="2" IDE1SlaveEmulationPort="3">
  <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="0" device="0">
    <Image uuid="{a16cb19f-5556-4269-b2d2-1c6c64349756}"/>
  </AttachedDevice>
  <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="1" device="0">
    <Image uuid="{599d0bc2-ae8c-4b2c-9fcf-c7a03907dfb8}"/>
  </AttachedDevice>
  <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="2" device="0">
    <Image uuid="{e5108f82-7667-4c9f-8257-6df0ee6ff15b}"/>
  </AttachedDevice>
</StorageController>
<StorageController name="NVMe" type="NVMe" PortCount="1" useHostIOCache="false" Bootable="true">
  <AttachedDevice nonrotational="true" type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="0" device="0">
    <Image uuid="{a047bfb7-a171-4e1d-bed0-fe9b7e80d185}"/>
  </AttachedDevice>
</StorageController>

I think I know how to force Virtualbox to ignore the snapshots and go back to using the original disks. The big question is, do you want the data that may be stored in these snapshots?

[scottgus1]

One other thing: In the Virtualbox Media Manager (see the main Virtualbox window, File menu), when you click on each of the three guest disks with snapshots, what does the "Type" dropdown say? (Click the base disk, not the snapshot, please.)

Here's the spot I mean:

media manager type.png (54.14 KiB) Viewed 2431 times

[Naitrael]

On all disks and snapshots the Type is set to "Normal".

[scottgus1]

Thanks. Nothing unusual about the disks then, except for these spurious snapshot files.
Do you want to save the data in the snapshots? Or would you be content just going back to beforehand?

[Naitrael]

...I think I know how to force Virtualbox to ignore the snapshots and go back to using the original disks. The big question is, do you want the data that may be stored in these snapshots?

Okay, so the snapshots are assigned to the corresponding device(uuid). Got it, that explains why I never ran into this issue before, since I never had such data-intensive VMs.

I don't need these snapshots, since data-loss would be prevented in another way.
The Parity-Drive actually holds the parity information for the other drives (more are yet to come, just testing right now), so it explains why its' snapshot also grows when the actual drive receiving the transferred data grows.

Since I'm testing right now, I would have no issue with losing this data by getting rid of the snapshots.

[Naitrael]

Thanks. Nothing unusual about the disks then, except for these spurious snapshot files.
Do you want to save the data in the snapshots? Or would you be content just going back to beforehand?

Am completely content to reverting back as long as this problem stops occuring.

[mpack]

It would be sensible in this case to distinguish between "Snapshots" and other VirtualBox features that create a difference disk image.

In this case I see another VM with a similar name, while the VM in question could be the same VM with additional changes, i.e. "with CD-Rom support".

Possibly implying that the second VM is a linked clone - another feature which uses difference images. There's no way to remove the difference image from the linked clone, other than to create a full clone. The whole point of a linked clone is to start with an earlier disk image while using a difference image in the client VM.

[scottgus1]

Now, see, Naitrael, this is why we wait until the gurus show up before doing anything drastic!
Totally disremebered linked clones! Thumbs up, Mpack!!

What say you, Naitrael? Are there any linked clones working off this Bananarama guest?

[scottgus1]

OK, so I made a linked clone of a DOS guest I have. Then I deleted the base guest and left the clone. Here is what my formerly-linked guest .vbox hard drive XML block looks like:

Code: Select all

        <HardDisk uuid="{7b65e016-0210-451d-86d5-e62a9439e9b7}" location="C:/Users/SnC/VirtualBox VMs/DOS/DOS 6.22 A/MS-DOS 6.22 with CD-Rom Support VHD.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
          <HardDisk uuid="{b808fcf5-967b-4d65-bf77-937ac78a1fd0}" location="Snapshots/{b808fcf5-967b-4d65-bf77-937ac78a1fd0}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
        </HardDisk>

And here's one of yours (all three have the same pattern):

Code: Select all

        <HardDisk uuid="{dba75e93-7884-44f8-858d-76748fb94649}" location="S:/vServerCache.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
          <HardDisk uuid="{a047bfb7-a171-4e1d-bed0-fe9b7e80d185}" location="Snapshots/{a047bfb7-a171-4e1d-bed0-fe9b7e80d185}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
        </HardDisk>

Notice the pattern is the same.

Was Bananarama2.0 a linked clone of Bananarama1.0 and the first Bananarama got deleted?

(Every time I see that guest name I start thinking "I heard a rumor"...)

[Naitrael]

Okay, let's roll this back.
This is a fresh Windows and VirtualBox install.

I created a VM called Server (because why not) with pretty much the same parameters where I created the Virtual Hard Disks. The aforementioned problem arose and since I didn't know better, I chose to delete the snapshots, because worst case nothing works anymore and I just have to set up a new machine (thought I accidentally misconfigured something) which takes about 5 mins.
Worst case arrived and I had do delete the whole old "Server" machine excluding the created VHDs. After erasure they were not "Attached to" anything anymore.

Now I setup the VM called Bananarama2.0, which is btw setup on a Windows-Account called Bananarama with the Computer designation Bananarama (maybe there's some confusion to be had? Not the most creative mind, i guess).
The same problem arose and I still couldn't find a solution and then I opened this thread.

That is all that happened from installation until now. Didn't make any manual snapshots, filecopies, clones or anything.