Apply checkpoint, replace "Now" in Hyper-V Manager

Question

I've created a VM and created a production checkpoint. I've performed various changes on the VM and I now want to revert back to the checkpoint. I right-clicked on the checkpoint and selected "Apply", then in the dialog again selected "Apply" because I don't need a checkpoint of the current state. Everything went fine, however, I still have (of course) the following checkpoint tree:

Automatic Checkpoint
|- MyNamedCheckpoint
   |- Now

After applying the checkpoint, I'm unsure whether I can delete the MyNamedCheckpoint safely. It says it will merge the checkpoint - what exactly does that mean? Is the Automatic Checkpoint changed? Is Now changed? Why is there still a "Now"? Is "Now" the same as MyNamedCheckpoint now? Is it still the "old" Now after I made the VM changes? Does it change when I start the VM the first time after applying the checkpoint?

Please help me, I'm a bit lost :-)

Answer 1

The documentation is very confusing here, as it doesn't specify the direction of the merge. You will find more information in the article How to Create and Delete Checkpoints.

The now is only a pointer to the current state of the VM, and may move when you apply checkpoints.

The article demonstrates a complex checkpoint architecture:

Applying the "AV Installed" checkpoint of the "Accounting" checkpoint branch gives the following result:

You can see that now is on the level as the "AV Installed" checkpoint.

If you delete the checkpoint "Before Update", you will keep the checkpoint "After Update". The data of "Before Update" will be merged into "After Update", as it was its base checkpoint. The now still points to the "AV Installed" checkpoint.