I’m trying to reduce costs by cleaning up some of the Azure Compute Galleries and snapshots that have accumulated over time in my environment, but I have a couple of questions: If I delete a snapshot, is there any chance it could impact my currently running VMs, or am I safe to delete them without worrying? Same for Azure Compute Galleries—if I delete one, could that impact any existing VMs or services that are running in my environment? I’ve noticed that these galleries and snapshots have piled up over time, and I want to do some cleanup to help cut down costs. Just want to make sure I’m not going to break anything in the process. Thanks in advance!

Hello @João Vitor do Prado Maia It's good that you're looking to optimize your costs by cleaning up your Azure Compute Galleries and snapshots. When you delete a snapshot, it won't impact any currently running VMs. However, it's important to note that the snapshot deletion operation cannot be undone. Impact of Deleting Azure Compute Galleries on Running VMs: Deleting an Azure Compute Gallery (formerly known as Shared Image Gallery) can have an impact if there are VMs or services that rely on the images stored in that gallery. If you delete a gallery, any VM or service that was created using an image from that gallery will not be able to scale out or create new instances using that image. However, the existing VMs and services that are already running will continue to operate without interruption It's a good practice to ensure that no active deployments are dependent on the images in the gallery before deleting it. You can also consider archiving or exporting the images if you might need them in the future. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask! If I have answered your query, please click "Accept as answer" as a token of appreciation

Cleaning Up Azure Compute Galleries and Snapshots to Reduce Costs

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Prrudram-MSFT 26,041 Reputation points

2024-09-05T16:10:38.81+00:00

Hello @João Vitor do Prado Maia

It's good that you're looking to optimize your costs by cleaning up your Azure Compute Galleries and snapshots. When you delete a snapshot, it won't impact any currently running VMs. However, it's important to note that the snapshot deletion operation cannot be undone.

Impact of Deleting Azure Compute Galleries on Running VMs: Deleting an Azure Compute Gallery (formerly known as Shared Image Gallery) can have an impact if there are VMs or services that rely on the images stored in that gallery. If you delete a gallery, any VM or service that was created using an image from that gallery will not be able to scale out or create new instances using that image. However, the existing VMs and services that are already running will continue to operate without interruption

It's a good practice to ensure that no active deployments are dependent on the images in the gallery before deleting it. You can also consider archiving or exporting the images if you might need them in the future.

If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

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1 person found this answer helpful.
razec18 220 Reputation points

2024-09-05T20:25:36.5333333+00:00

Hello, thank you very much for your response!

In my case, I do have an image gallery, but it’s quite old, and I no longer use it for anything. However, some VMs were originally created from it.

Additionally, some images were created from snapshots, but there’s nothing stopping me from creating new snapshots if needed.

So, can I go ahead and delete the galleries and snapshots without impacting my current environment? That’s my biggest concern.

Thanks again!

razec18 220 Reputation points

2024-09-05T20:27:48.62+00:00

Another question, some of my snapshots are incremental and other are full. This makes no difference, right?

Prrudram-MSFT 26,041 Reputation points

2024-09-06T09:27:38.0833333+00:00

Hello João Vitor do Prado Maia,

If you have virtual machines that were created from an Azure Image Gallery or snapshots, deleting the galleries and snapshots could impact those virtual machines. When you delete an image gallery, all the image definitions and image versions in the gallery are also deleted. If you have virtual machines that were created from those image versions, those virtual machines will no longer be able to use those images. Similarly, when you delete a snapshot, any virtual machines that were created from that snapshot will no longer be able to use that snapshot.

As suggested before you delete any galleries or snapshots, you should make sure that you are no longer using them for any virtual machines. You can check which virtual machines are using a particular image version or snapshot by looking at the sourceImage property of the virtual machine. If the sourceImage property refers to an image version or snapshot that you want to delete, you should create a new image version or snapshot to use as the source image before deleting the old one.

Once you have confirmed that you are no longer using the galleries or snapshots, you can go ahead and delete them. Deleting galleries and snapshots will not impact your current environment as long as you are not using them for any virtual machines. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Prrudram-MSFT 26,041 Reputation points

2024-09-06T09:28:06.63+00:00

Hi João Vitor do Prado Maia,
If an answer has been helpful, please consider accepting the answer to help increase visibility of this question for other members of the Microsoft Q&A community. If not, please let us know what is still needed in the comments so the question can be answered. Thank you for helping to improve Microsoft Q&A!

razec18 220 Reputation points

2024-09-07T00:45:48.5266667+00:00

So, all of my current virtual machines were created either from a snapshot (after creating a disk and running sysprep) and then, consequently, from an Azure Compute Gallery.

I can go to my existing VMs, take new snapshots, create new disks, and then new gallery images without any issues, right? That’s the plan, to keep everything in the environment up to date.

My biggest concern is that deleting the Azure Compute Galleries I currently have, or the snapshots, could cause some kind of interruption in my production VMs or make them stop working / be impacted in any way.

I hope I explained myself well, and thank you so much for your help!

razec18 220 Reputation points

2024-09-07T00:46:00.5166667+00:00

So, all of my current virtual machines were created either from a snapshot (after creating a disk and running sysprep) and then, consequently, from an Azure Compute Gallery.

I can go to my existing VMs, take new snapshots, create new disks, and then new gallery images without any issues, right? That’s the plan, to keep everything in the environment up to date.

My biggest concern is that deleting the Azure Compute Galleries I currently have, or the snapshots, could cause some kind of interruption in my production VMs or make them stop working / be impacted in any way.

I hope I explained myself well, and thank you so much for your help!

Prrudram-MSFT 26,041 Reputation points

2024-09-09T05:41:55.7566667+00:00

João Vitor do Prado Maia

Yes, you can create new snapshots, disks, and gallery images from your existing virtual machines without any issues. This is a common practice to keep your virtual machines up to date and to ensure that you have the latest software and configurations installed. Deleting Azure Compute Galleries or snapshots should not cause any interruption to your production virtual machines. However, you should be careful when deleting resources in Azure, as it can have unintended consequences. Before deleting any resources, you should make sure that you have a backup or a copy of the data, and that you have a plan to recover from any issues that may arise. When you delete an Azure Compute Gallery, it does not delete the virtual machines or disks that are associated with the gallery.
However, if you delete a snapshot that is used to create a virtual machine or a disk, it will impact the virtual machine or disk that is associated with the snapshot. If you delete a snapshot that is used to create a gallery image, it will impact the gallery image that is associated with the snapshot. To avoid any issues, you should make sure that you have a backup or a copy of the data before deleting any resources. You should also make sure that you have a plan to recover from any issues that may arise.

razec18 220 Reputation points

2024-09-10T17:58:49.1333333+00:00

Currently, I’m only using VMSS to scale new virtual machines, and the template (Azure Compute Gallery) that I’m actively using won’t be deleted.

I’ll only be deleting old images and snapshots that I created a long time ago to generate a new disk or a new VM—something along those lines.

Thanks again for your help!

Prrudram-MSFT 26,041 Reputation points

2024-10-01T17:16:44.0166667+00:00

Hello João Vitor do Prado Maia

Thanks for the update.

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Cleaning Up Azure Compute Galleries and Snapshots to Reduce Costs

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