vSphere 7.x: Taking Snapshots of Virtual Machines with Multiple Disk Types

Taking Snapshots of Virtual Machines with Multiple Disk Types

Question

An administrator is asked to take a snapshot of a virtual machine prior to an application upgrade.

The virtual machine has one standard virtual machine disk (VMDK) and one physical mode raw device mapping (RDM) attached.

Which statement is true with regard to taking this snapshot? (Choose the best answer.)

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

D.

When taking a snapshot of a virtual machine, vSphere creates a copy of the virtual machine's disk files in their current state, including any changes made after the snapshot was taken. When a virtual machine has multiple disks, such as a standard virtual machine disk (VMDK) and a physical mode raw device mapping (RDM), the behavior of the snapshotting process may differ depending on the disk type.

Answer A is correct. When a snapshot is taken of a virtual machine that has a physical mode RDM attached, only the virtual machine disk (VMDK) can be snapshot. The RDM, which maps a physical LUN to a virtual machine, is not included in the snapshot process. The reason for this is that RDMs are physical devices that are directly attached to the virtual machine, and snapshots only capture the virtual machine's disk state. As a result, any changes made to the RDM after the snapshot is taken will not be included in the snapshot.

Answer B is incorrect. Although the administrator will be able to snapshot the standard VMDK, this is not related to the independent persistent mode. Independent persistent mode is a disk mode that allows a virtual machine's disk to operate independently of the virtual machine's snapshot hierarchy. In other words, changes made to the disk are not affected by snapshots. However, this is not relevant in this scenario as the question does not mention anything about using independent persistent mode.

Answer C is incorrect. As mentioned earlier, RDMs cannot be snapshot in vSphere.

Answer D is incorrect. Only the VMDK can be snapshot, not the RDM.

Therefore, the correct answer is A: The administrator will be unable to snapshot the RDM.