A user can select one or more non-secure snapshots of a resource and delete them on demand. From PowerStore Manager, if a single snapshot is chosen within the Protection tab in the properties of a resource and Delete is selected, a confirmation window appears listing the snapshot name and if the user wants to delete the snapshot. When multiple snapshots are selected, the confirmation window displays a full list of all selected snapshots when the show more option is used. If the snapshot is of a virtual machine, the snapshot is also removed from vSphere. Snapshots with the Secure Snapshot setting enabled cannot be deleted by any PowerStore User role. If a snapshot with the Secure Snapshot setting enabled needs to be deleted, wait for the retention period to expire, or contact your support provider to delete the snapshot during the retention period.

Deleting a snapshot within PowerStore may return free space back to the appliance. If the snapshot was recently created, the snapshot has pointers to most, if not all, data contained within the parent resource. Also, as PowerStore uses deduplication and compression mechanisms to reduce the amount of data stored within the system, a snapshot may not only have blocks in common with the parent resource, but other resources within the system. Blocks of data only unique to a given snapshot are deleted and space is returned to the system for use by other resources.