Techniques for taking and managing snapshots comprise: capturing a first snapshot of a virtual machine (VM), wherein the first snapshot is a managed snapshot exposed to a virtualization environment and a data storage system environment providing physical storage for data of the VM; capturing a second snapshot of the VM, wherein the second snapshot of the VM is a managed snapshot of the VM is exposed to the virtualization environment and the data storage system environment; and converting the second snapshot of the VM from a managed snapshot of the VM to an unmanaged snapshot of the VM. Subsequent to completing the converting, the second snapshot of the VM that is an unmanaged snapshot is exposed to the data storage system environment and subsequent to completing the converting, the second snapshot of the VM that is an unmanaged snapshot is not exposed to the virtualization environment.