Handling Snapshots - the easy way
Posted: 10. Jun 2009, 15:09
I read some threads here about snapshot handling that was a bit confusing and on my opinion the wording abot handling snapshots
in virtualbox is in places unclear. so i tested snapshot handling to know exactly what its about.
after that, snapshot handling in virtual box is easy if you know the excact meaning of the gui-buttons.
if you want to follow my explanations:
select a Virtual Machine in the left window and acitvate the snapshot window in the right window of the virtualbox gui
the selected VM must not be in running.
Considering snapshot-handling in VirtualBox you have have 3 things:
-the <name>.VDI File your VM is based on (the .vdi file will no be display in the snapshot window)
-a State,
- None, one or more snapshots.
If there is no snapshot, the state is always related to your <name>.VDI file
otherwise the state is always related the the last snapshot in the tree.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you click on the state, the virtualbox gui activates 2 Icons:
the icon with one arrow means:
throw away all changes made after taking the related snapshot.
(gui: the state will be displayed as actual state now)
the icon with two arrows means:
throw away all changes (state and snapshot) and go back to the previous snapshot
(gui: the snapshot has gone, the state will be displayed as actual in the previous snapshot)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if you click on a snapshot the virualbox gui activates 2 Icons:
the icon with the circle, which will dispay details about the snapshot,
the icon with the x means:
merge all changes of this snapshot to the previos snapshot,
if there is no previos snapshot, all changes will be merged to the
.vdi file your vm is based on.
this is the only way to take over changes !
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and thats is.
My Test area
Host: Vista SP1,
Guest : XP SP3
VirtualBox Version: 2.2.4-47978
if there is something wrong, feel free to correcte or improve.
comments are welcome
greetings xuu4u
in virtualbox is in places unclear. so i tested snapshot handling to know exactly what its about.
after that, snapshot handling in virtual box is easy if you know the excact meaning of the gui-buttons.
if you want to follow my explanations:
select a Virtual Machine in the left window and acitvate the snapshot window in the right window of the virtualbox gui
the selected VM must not be in running.
Considering snapshot-handling in VirtualBox you have have 3 things:
-the <name>.VDI File your VM is based on (the .vdi file will no be display in the snapshot window)
-a State,
- None, one or more snapshots.
If there is no snapshot, the state is always related to your <name>.VDI file
otherwise the state is always related the the last snapshot in the tree.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you click on the state, the virtualbox gui activates 2 Icons:
the icon with one arrow means:
throw away all changes made after taking the related snapshot.
(gui: the state will be displayed as actual state now)
the icon with two arrows means:
throw away all changes (state and snapshot) and go back to the previous snapshot
(gui: the snapshot has gone, the state will be displayed as actual in the previous snapshot)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if you click on a snapshot the virualbox gui activates 2 Icons:
the icon with the circle, which will dispay details about the snapshot,
the icon with the x means:
merge all changes of this snapshot to the previos snapshot,
if there is no previos snapshot, all changes will be merged to the
.vdi file your vm is based on.
this is the only way to take over changes !
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and thats is.
My Test area
Host: Vista SP1,
Guest : XP SP3
VirtualBox Version: 2.2.4-47978
if there is something wrong, feel free to correcte or improve.
comments are welcome
greetings xuu4u