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I have the exact same image in 2 locations:

a) A local drive
b) A network drive

I add the image to the VM, create a snapshot and immediately see a small file (e.g. {e7883218-ea9e-4146-8fbf-54e31b9411ce}.vdi appear in the Snapshots dir of the VM. Starting the VM makes that file grow, while the original image is untouched as expected and all seems well in the world.

Adding an image from a network location (a samba share on my NAS) and taking a snapshot, no such sequence of events occurs. There is no snapshot taken and when booted, the original image is modified in place, on the network.

I would very much like to boot from the network, while maintaining snapshots locally.

Is this a bug? A setting I missed? Some misconfiguration?
My google fu has failed me miserably as every search query returns unrelated results.

Keep in mind the distinction is local vs network drive, not drive where VM is located vs not. If the drive is local, even if it's not the same as where the VM is located, it will still correctly make snapshots.

Edit: I tried being clever and creating a symlink from the network share to my local machine, then adding that. It did not work. :)

Edit2: Log says the following when trying to create a snapshot: ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_INVALID_VM_STATE (0x80bb0002) aIID={300763af-5d6b-46e6-aa96-273eac15538a} aComponent={MachineWrap} aText={The machine is not mutable (state is PoweredOff)}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0

Edit3: Creating via CLI says Snapshot taken and gives some UUID, with no error, but there is no snapshot (log still has the error).

VBox v7.0.8 btw.

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  • "There is no snapshot taken" when going to Snapshots on the VM it's empty?
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 12:06
  • Entirely and sadly @YisroelTech. (Well it does put some random .nvram file in there, but no snapshot.)
    – martixy
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 12:10
  • @martixy - You should edit your question to clarify it instead of submitting a comment
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 12:15
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    Please add the additional info to the question instead of (only) having them in the comments. Maybe it's some config issue with the particular machine you have there. Have you tried creating a new VM from fresh on the network drive and do a snapshot on it?
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 13:36
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    I can, it seems. The manager is obnoxiously finicky with switching disks (if they're all named the same), but otherwise now there's no problem. 😁
    – martixy
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 14:46

1 Answer 1

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While not sure what might be causing the issue (the error given seems not to really be related to anything about the snapshot, and in CLI the snapshot reports to be created, so it might not be an issue with "creating the snapshot" but the VM not knowing afterward that it exists.)

You can try with a fresh start by creating a new VM on the network drive and see if a snapshot from this new machine does work.

If it does, this will take away the blame from the local drive vs. network drive.

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  • Yes, it seems recreating the VM fixed the issue. However one caveat: but the VM not knowing afterward that it exists - we had already established early on that no file is created. It is the first question you asked. So I suppose shotgun debugging wins the day once more…? 😅
    – martixy
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 14:49
  • I would disagree with the conclusion that no file is created. It might be created somewhere else (and you don't know where to check) and that might be caused by some config stuff in the old VM.
    – Yisroel Tech
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 14:52

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