If an administrator deletes the Service 1.5 snapshot, what will be the outcome?

When an administrator deletes a specific snapshot, in this case, the Service 1.5 snapshot, the action affects the snapshot hierarchy and how the virtual machine (VM) operates. The correct outcome involves reverting to the snapshot that directly precedes the deleted snapshot in the chain.

In this scenario, when the Service 1.5 snapshot is deleted, the virtual machine does not revert to the Service 1 snapshot as a result of this deletion. Instead, it remains operational at the Service 2 snapshot level; hence, Service 2 stays intact. This means that any changes made in the Service 1.5 snapshot are discarded, and the system effectively operates based on the Service 2 snapshot, which was captured prior.

This highlights the importance of understanding how VMware snapshot management works, particularly how snapshots are tied together in a linear fashion, where each snapshot depends on the previous one. When a snapshot is removed, the VM will revert to the last known good state, in this case, Service 2, without losing the integrity or data of that snapshot.