Connect Hypervisors (vCenter, SCVMM, Azure)

Snapshot Master talks to three platforms: VMware vCenter, Microsoft SCVMM (Hyper-V), and Microsoft Azure. Before you can list or manage snapshots, you need to add at least one connection. This guide walks each one.

VMware vCenter

What you need

• vCenter hostname or IP.
• A service account in vCenter with snapshot-management permissions. The minimum permission set: Virtual Machine → Snapshot Management → Create / Remove / Revert.
• Credentials for the service account.

Add the connection

1. Open Snapshot Master → Connections tab → Add VMware vCenter.
2. Enter the vCenter hostname or IP and click Connect.
3. Enter the service account username and password. The account can be a vSphere local user or a domain account (Domain\User or User@Domain.com).
4. Confirm the SSL certificate fingerprint Snapshot Master presents matches what your vCenter actually serves. Click Trust to remember it.
5. Click Save.

Snapshot Master enumerates your vCenter inventory and adds the VMs to the main view.

Microsoft Hyper-V (via SCVMM)

What you need

• SCVMM server hostname.
• A service account with VM management rights in SCVMM.

Add the connection

1. Open Snapshot Master → Connections tab → Add Hyper-V (SCVMM).
2. Enter the SCVMM hostname.
3. Enter service account credentials.
4. Click Save.

SCVMM enumerates host clusters and VMs; Snapshot Master adds them to the main view alongside any VMware VMs.

Direct Hyper-V without SCVMM

For environments without SCVMM, Snapshot Master can connect to individual Hyper-V hosts directly. Add each host the same way, picking Add Hyper-V (Direct host) instead. You will need local administrator credentials on each host.

Microsoft Azure

What you need

• An Azure account with Virtual Machine Contributor (or higher) on the subscriptions you want to manage.

Add the connection

1. Open Snapshot Master → Connections tab → Add Azure.
2. Click Sign in to Azure. The Microsoft sign-in flow opens. Authenticate with the chosen account.
3. After sign-in, Snapshot Master lists your subscriptions. Tick the subscriptions you want to manage.
4. Click Save.

Snapshot Master enumerates Azure VMs across the selected subscriptions.

Multiple connections

Each platform can have multiple connections — multiple vCenters, multiple SCVMM servers, multiple Azure tenants. Snapshot Master treats each one as a separate inventory source and aggregates the VMs into a single view in the main window.

Credentials handling

Snapshot Master stores connection credentials locally on the Windows machine in encrypted form. Credentials are never sent to Smikar. For Azure connections, the OAuth token issued by Microsoft is refreshed automatically; for vCenter and SCVMM, the username and password are reused on each operation.

For shared admin workstations, consider using Windows-account-scoped service accounts so that operations are attributable to a specific human in your audit logs.

Removing a connection

Connections tab → right-click the connection → Remove. The VMs disappear from the main view but the snapshots themselves are not affected — Snapshot Master only removed its visibility, not the underlying VM state.

See also

• Install Snapshot Master — what runs before this step.
• Create and revert snapshots — the day-one operations once connections are in place.

Need help? support@smikar.com.