vmware - revert to snapshot from within the GUEST? - vmware

Question

i have virtual machines running on vmware ESXi and vmware workstation.
i need to execute "revert to snapshot" from inside the guest.
i have done so much searching, but all solutions proposed so far suggest doing it from "outside" - either some external machine or the host itself.
other workarounds suggest to enable automatic reverting to snapshot on power off event.
please do not suggest anything in that direction. i really need to execute it from within the guest. for example:
as scheduled task
as batch script (at the end of completing some other tasks)
edit:
this is the reason why i think there must be some way to achieve this: inside the guest there are "vmare tools" running as system service. so i would expect this component to also expose a functionality to trigger the host / hypervisor reverting the current VM to snapshot.
if this is not possible currently it should be implemented as new feature :)
in case it's currently not possible to execute it "from inside": that would also be an "answer" ...

Answer 1

I've actually done this pretty recently, try this:
Install VMware vSphere PowerCLI 5.1 (it's a command line scripting interface for ESX)
Write a script (perhaps in Notepad) that contains the following code:
Connect-VIServer <vCenter Server IP>
Set-VM <VM name> -Snapshot <Snapshot name> -Confirm:$false
This will connect to your vCenter server and revert your VM to the specified snapshot.
Save the script as revert_snapshot.ps1 (PowerShell file extension)
Using Windows Task Schedule, create a new tasks. The General and Triggers tabs are self
explanatory, but the Actions tab is where you'll configure the scheduled tasks to launch
your PowerShell script.
For 'Action' select 'Start a Program'. Under 'Program/script', enter the following:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
For the 'Add arguments' field, you'll specify the path of your PowerShell script:
-psc "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\vim.psc1" "<path to your script>"
note: vim.psc1 is not available in the latest version of PowerCLI.
Save your task and run it manually as a test. Be patient as sometimes the cmdlet for logging into vCenter (Connect-VIServer) can take a few seconds to connect.