vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot module – Manages virtual machines snapshots in vCenter

Note

This module is part of the vmware.vmware collection (version 2.9.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install vmware.vmware.

To use it in a playbook, specify: vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot.

Synopsis

  • This module can be used to create, delete and update snapshot(s) of the given virtual machine.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

datacenter

string

Datacenter to search for the virtual machine.

description

string

Define an arbitrary description to attach to snapshot.

Default: ""

folder

string

Absolute or relative folder path to search for the virtual machine.

This parameter is required if name is supplied.

For example ‘datacenter name/vm/path/to/folder’ or ‘path/to/folder’

folder_paths_are_absolute

boolean

If true, any folder path parameters are treated as absolute paths.

If false, modules will try to intelligently determine if the path is absolute or relative.

This option is useful when your environment has a complex folder structure. By default, modules will try to intelligently determine if the path is absolute or relative. They may mistakenly prepend the datacenter name or other folder names, and this option can be used to avoid this.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

hostname

string

The hostname or IP address of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_HOST will be used instead.

memory_dump

boolean

If set to true, memory dump of virtual machine is also included in snapshot.

Note that memory snapshots take time and resources, this will take longer time to create.

If virtual machine does not provide capability to take memory snapshot, then this flag is set to false.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

moid

string

Managed Object ID of the virtual machine to manage.

This is required if name or uuid is not supplied.

name

string

Name of the virtual machine to work with.

This is required parameter, if uuid or moid is not supplied.

name_match

string

If multiple VMs with the same name exist, use the first or last found.

Choices:

  • "first" ← (default)

  • "last"

new_snapshot_name

string

If the snapshot already exists, it will be renamed to this value.

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string

The password of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PASSWORD will be used instead.

port

integer

The port number of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PORT will be used instead.

Default: 443

proxy_host

string

The address of a proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.

The format is a hostname or a IP.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PROXY_HOST will be used instead.

proxy_port

integer

The port of the HTTP proxy that will receive all HTTPS requests and relay them.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_PROXY_PORT will be used instead.

quiesce

boolean

If set to true and virtual machine is powered on, it will quiesce the file system in virtual machine.

Note that VMware Tools are required for this flag.

If virtual machine is powered off or VMware Tools are not available, then this flag is set to false.

If virtual machine does not provide capability to take quiesce snapshot, then this flag is set to false.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

remove_all

boolean

Removes all snapshots in VM if set to true.

Allowed only when state is absent

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

remove_children

boolean

If set to true and state=absent, then the entire snapshot subtree will be removed.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

snapshot_id

integer

The ID of the snapshot to manage. This option cannot be used when creating a new snapshot.

Either this parameter or snapshot_name is required if remove_all is set to False.

snapshot_name

string

The name of the snapshot to manage.

Either this parameter or snapshot_id is required if remove_all is set to False.

state

string

Manage snapshot(s) attached to a specific virtual machine.

If set to present and the snapshot absent, a new snapshot will be created with the given name.

If set to present, the snapshot is present, and new_snapshot_name or description are set, the snapshot name or description is updated.

If set to absent and snapshot present, then the snapshot with the given name is removed.

Choices:

  • "present" ← (default)

  • "absent"

timeout

integer

The timeout value in seconds for the module to wait for the task to finish.

Default: 3600

use_instance_uuid

boolean

Whether to use the VMware instance UUID rather than the BIOS UUID.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

username

aliases: admin, user

string

The username of the vSphere vCenter server.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_USER will be used instead.

uuid

string

UUID of the instance to manage. This is VMware’s BIOS UUID by default.

This is required if name or moid parameter is not supplied.

validate_certs

boolean

Allows connection when SSL certificates are not valid. Set to false when certificates are not trusted.

If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable VMWARE_VALIDATE_CERTS will be used instead.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Notes

Note

  • All modules require API write access and hence are not supported on a free ESXi license.

  • All variables and VMware object names are case sensitive.

  • Modules may rely on the ‘requests’ python library, which does not use the system certificate store by default. You can specify the certificate store by setting the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE environment variable. Note having this variable set may cause a ‘false’ value for the ‘validate_certs’ option to be ignored in some cases. Example: ‘export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/ca_bundle.pem’

Examples

- name: Create a snapshot
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: present
    snapshot_name: snap1
    description: snap1_description

- name: Remove a snapshot
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/nested/folder/path"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: absent
    snapshot_name: snap1

- name: Remove all snapshots of a VM
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: absent
    remove_all: true

- name: Remove all snapshots of a VM using MoID
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/nested/folder/path"
    moid: vm-42
    state: absent
    remove_all: true

- name: Take snapshot of a VM using quiesce and memory flag on
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "nested/folder/path"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: present
    snapshot_name: dummy_vm_snap_0001
    quiesce: true
    memory_dump: true

- name: Remove a snapshot and snapshot subtree
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: absent
    remove_children: true
    snapshot_name: snap1

- name: Remove a snapshot with a snapshot id
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "/{{ datacenter_name }}/vm/nested/folder/path"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    snapshot_id: 10
    state: absent

- name: Rename a snapshot
  vmware.vmware.vm_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
    folder: "nested/folder/path"
    name: "{{ guest_name }}"
    state: present
    snapshot_name: current_snap_name
    new_snapshot_name: im_renamed
    description: "{{ new_snapshot_description }}"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

result

dictionary

Information about the vCenter task, if one was run

Returned: On change

Sample: {"completion_time": "2025-04-15T23:29:47.435215+00:00", "entity_name": "test-e7e0-vm", "error": null, "state": "success"}

snapshot

dictionary

Metadata about the affected virtual machine snapshot

Returned: When state is present

Sample: {"creation_time": "2024-12-24T15:27:37.041577+00:00", "description": "Snapshot 4 example", "id": 4, "name": "snapshot4", "state": "poweredOff"}

vm

dictionary

Information about the target VM

Returned: Always

Sample: {"moid": "vm-79828,", "name": "test-d9c1-vm"}

Authors

  • Ansible Cloud Team (@ansible-collections)