Automating Snapshot Lifecycle for Nutanix with Ansible

Introduction

Snapshots are critical for backup and recovery, but they must be managed correctly to avoid sprawl. With Ansible, you can automate the full snapshot lifecycle on Nutanix AHV, creating, listing, and deleting snapshots through playbooks. This article shows you how to set up reusable snapshot tasks and schedule them reliably.

My Personal Repository on GitHub

Nutanix Repository on GitHub

Diagram: Snapshot Lifecycle Flow

Use Case

• Create a daily snapshot
• Retain only 3 latest snapshots per VM
• Delete older snapshots automatically

Required Files

• inventory.yml
• nutanix_credentials.yml (vault encrypted)
• rotate_snapshots.yml (main playbook)

Sample Playbook: rotate_snapshots.yml

- name: Snapshot lifecycle for Nutanix VM
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - nutanix.ncp
  vars_files:
    - nutanix_credentials.yml
  vars:
    vm_list:
      - web01
      - db01
    max_snapshots: 3
  tasks:

    - name: Create snapshot for each VM
      loop: "{{ vm_list }}"
      loop_control:
        loop_var: vm_name
      nutanix.ncp.vm_snapshots:
        vm_name: "{{ vm_name }}"
        snapshot_name: "{{ vm_name }}_snap_{{ '%Y%m%d' | strftime(ansible_date_time.epoch) }}"
        state: present

    - name: Get snapshot list per VM
      loop: "{{ vm_list }}"
      loop_control:
        loop_var: vm_name
      nutanix.ncp.vm_snapshots_info:
        vm_name: "{{ vm_name }}"
      register: snap_outputs

    - name: Delete old snapshots (retain max_snapshots)
      loop: "{{ snap_outputs.results }}"
      when: item.snapshots | length > max_snapshots
      loop_control:
        label: "{{ item.invocation.module_args.vm_name }}"
      block:
        - name: Sort and trim snapshots
          set_fact:
            to_delete: "{{ item.snapshots | sort(attribute='creation_time') | map(attribute='name') | list | slice(0, item.snapshots | length - max_snapshots) }}"

        - name: Delete older snapshots
          loop: "{{ to_delete }}"
          loop_control:
            loop_var: snap_name
          nutanix.ncp.vm_snapshots:
            vm_name: "{{ item.invocation.module_args.vm_name }}"
            snapshot_name: "{{ snap_name }}"
            state: absent

Run It

ansible-playbook rotate_snapshots.yml --ask-vault-pass -i inventory.yml

Scheduling with Cron

Use a daily job in the control server:

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/run_snapshot_rotate.sh

Where run_snapshot_rotate.sh wraps the Ansible call.

Summary

This playbook gives you complete control over Nutanix VM snapshots, ensuring consistency, compliance, and automation without cluttering storage. Adjust retention policies and VM targets as needed for any application tier.

External Documentation:

• Nutanix Ansible Collection
• Nutanix Data Protection Reference