{"id":8620,"date":"2013-01-08T16:08:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T16:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/virtual-machine-snapshot\/"},"modified":"2013-03-19T20:10:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-19T20:10:45","slug":"virtual-machine-snapshot","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Machine Snapshot"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_virtual_machine_snapshot_mean\">What Does Virtual Machine Snapshot Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A virtual machine snapshot (VM snapshot) is the state of a virtual machine (VM) that is copied and stored at a specified time. It develops a copy of the VM that is used for VM migration, backup and restore procedures. A virtual machine snapshot allows a VM to be restored to a former state of snapshot creation. <\/p>\n<p>A virtual machine snapshot is also known as a virtual machine image (VM image).<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_virtual_machine_snapshot\">Techopedia Explains Virtual Machine Snapshot<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A virtual machine snapshot works as a typical operating system (OS) snapshot. Its primary purpose is to create an exact VM replica. A virtual machine snapshot is created by the client\/server hypervisor or the VM manager.<\/p>\n<p>The snapshot keeps the following records:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>State<\/b>: Includes the operational state of the VM (such as active), which is suspended along with its configuration. <\/li>\n<li><b>Data<\/b>: Includes all files from disk, memory and device driver cards. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A virtual machine snapshot is also important for operational environment, where the same instance of a VM must be created multiple times. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Virtual Machine Snapshot Mean? A virtual machine snapshot (VM snapshot) is the state of a virtual machine (VM) that is copied and stored at a specified time. It develops a copy of the VM that is used for VM migration, backup and restore procedures. A virtual machine snapshot allows a VM to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[215,224,256],"class_list":["post-8620","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cloud-computing","definitioncat-containers-virtualization","definitioncat-emerging-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Virtual Machine Snapshot (VM Snapshot)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Machine Snapshot and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtual Machine Snapshot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Machine Snapshot and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-19T20:10:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Virtual Machine Snapshot\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-08T16:08:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-03-19T20:10:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot\"},\"wordCount\":178,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/16821\/virtual-machine-snapshot-vm-snapshot\",\"name\":\"What is a Virtual Machine Snapshot (VM Snapshot)? 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