OK the other day i faced this issue under snapshot manager i am not able to see any snapshot but yes but when i do a ls on my VM directory i see those delta disks , so if you are in this situation then follow these ….

Create a new snapshot and delete it. The delete commits down through the entire tree of snapshots. This means all snapshots on the virtual machine are committed and the snapshot files are deleted. You must have some storage available as the new snapshot requires a minimum of 16MB. If the virtual machine needs to remain running, you must accomodate for the snapshots to grow as the older snapshots commit.

To commit all snapshots:

1. Log in to the ESX Server service console.

2. Eexcute the following commands:
# vmware-cmd -l
This will list all the VirtualMachines with it’s path which are registered to this host.

#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/UUID/VMNAME/VMNAME.vmx hassnapshot

This command is used to confirm that there is a snapshot. If the output displays a blank value or value of 1, a snapshot is present. If the output displays a value of 0, there is no snapshot present.

3. Create a new snapshot by executing the command:

#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/UUID/VMNAME/VMNAME.vmx createsnapshot “”

For eg: #vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/UUID/VMNAME/VMNAME.vmx createsnapshot test

Note: You can use any name you like. The name appears in the snapshot manager.

4. Now remove the snapshots using the command:

#vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/UUID/VMNAME/VMNAME.vmx removesnapshots

This should resolve the issue.

Solution B.

If solution A did not work then next step to follow is: use vmkfstools -i to consolidate snapshots.
1. You can export the disk with vmkfstools to recreate the virtual machine:

2. Execute the following command to create a directory for the new disk:

# mkdir /vmfs/volumes/UUID/new_RHEL5

3. Execute the following command to point vmkfstools at the last snapshot file:

# vmkfstools -i RHEL5-000001.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/UUID/new_RHEL5/new_RHEL5.vmdk

Output:
Destination disk format: VMFS thick
Cloning disk ‘RHEL5-000001.vmdk’…
Clone: 3% done

4. Now recreate the virtual machine with custom option to use an existing disk. Then select Use an existing virtual disk.

5. Next power-on the VM and check, if the data on the VM is intact. Once you are sure that the VM is restored back with its contents, you may go ahead and delete the old virtual disks and it’s associated snapshots files.

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