[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Snapshots are for test, not for real - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Sun, May 20 2012 0:48 bradley

Snapshots are for test, not for real

So here's one best practice that I for sure follow... I ignore the ability to do snapshots in anything other than my Test HyperV.  On my real production, snapshots are to be ignored.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-tips-for-optimizing-hyper-v/726

Primarily in my mind for the fact that making a snapshot of a DC isn't wise as it could lead to tombstone issues where if you roll back you could be going back in your AD history unknowingly, and then secondly ...now granted by TestHyperV is an overgrown Frys desktop, but it nails that servers performance when it snaps an image.

So just plan on having a normal backup for your HyperV child and not taking snapshots.

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# re: Snapshots are for test, not for real

Monday, May 21, 2012 6:34 AM by Sepp

Have a try with Altaro Hyper-V Backup, its free for 2 clients and works extremely well on Hyper-V (core only)… I have been using it for some time and the assistance from the company is excellent ( even for the free version, which I am using).

www.altaro.com

Have fun

Sepp

# re: Snapshots are for test, not for real

Monday, May 21, 2012 1:04 PM by JNM

I agree w/Sepp - Altaro is a great product with excellent support.  I, too, am using the free version.

I do though use the Hyper-V snapshots - but in specific circumstances.  On my production vms (neither are DCs or database servers), I run a snapshot before updates or any major changes, do the updates/change and all the testing and then if all is well, delete the previous snapshot, keeping only the latest snapshot per vm.  As updates/changes take place during off hours, performance isn't an issue.  This has saved me in a couple instances.  Given the info in the linked article, I will take a second look at keeping even that latest snapshot.