Working with Snapshots

One of the key features of working with Virtual Machines is the ability to create snapshots of a virtual machine at a specific point in time and later roll back to this point using the snapshot when a failure or system error occurs during upgrades or other changes. Snapshots alone do not provide backup. You should learn how to take snapshots of your virtual machines and how to roll back to previous snapshots. Another section discusses how to use and share Virtual Machine Images.

Goals/Objectives/Outcomes

• Understand the basic principles of Virtual Machine Snapshotting
• Understand how (and when) to take snapshots of the virtual machines used for a project
• Understand how to roll back to previous snapshots
• Understand how to manage snapshots over time
• Understand the difference between snapshots used for rollback and Virtual Machine Images used for sharing

Reference Material

• http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#snapshots
• http://www.howtogeek.com/150258/how-to-save-time-by-using-snapshots-in-virtualbox/
• https://ryantrotz.com/2011/12/virtualbox-snapshots-and-vmis/
• http://news.filehippo.com/2014/06/use-snapshot-virtualbox/
• http://features.en.softonic.com/how-to-create-and-manage-snapshots-in-virtualbox

Measures of Success

• Participant has demonstrated the ability to work with VM snapshots in their development environment.
• Participant can articulate the difference between snapshots and virtual machine images.