Clone, consolidating .vmdk disks

[ivanildogalvao]

I have a virtual machine on VMware, which is a mess, the VM is 4TB in size, it has several virtual disks, with some snapshots, this virtual machine has some strange problems that prevent consolidating the virtual disks.

Then I think about creating a replica of it, either with Veeam or with vCenter Converter.
If I use any of these tools, the disks will be consolidated so that the replica virtual machine contains only the original disks, properly updated with data.
Or will both Veeam and vCenter Converter, copy all parent delta disks from the root?

Appreciate !

[HannesK]

Hello,
Veeam does backup / replica only of the latest state.

Best regards,
Hannes

[ivanildogalvao]

Hello, yes I know that Veeam replica of the most recent state.
What I'm asking is whether in this process he merges all the delta vmdk disks together with the root disk, or selects it simply copies everything as it is, thus taking all delta disks left by snapshots.

I ask the same question regarding vCenter Converter.

[HannesK]

no, it only copies the current state (no deletion / merge of old snapshots). It does not care about old data in snapshots. Actually customers would "kill" us, if we would merge their snapshots.

I'm focused on Veeam products... the VMware converter question might be something for a VMware forum. For me only the latest state makes sense, but I did not use it since 10 years.

[ivanildogalvao]

Ok, I got it.
My concern was that Veeam would take all delta disks in replication, I have a VM with more than 10 deltas, all connected in a chain.
But I understood that Veeam doesn't look at that, it just creates the replica VM, with a disk of total size equal to the one defined from the original VM and then copies all the current data.

Thanks !