Abstract: VM file management includes detecting a user request to access to a virtual machine (VM) and searching a pre-defined list to determine whether the user requesting access is identified on the list. If so, a file-level snapshot is generated prior to enabling modification of a VM file by the user. The file-level snapshot includes a user attribute and is added as the top layer of a stack. The user attribute indicates a role of the user for whom the file-level snapshot is created. Each layer of the stack contains one or more other file-level snapshots. The VM file is written in the file's entirety to the snapshot in response to the user modifying the VM file. Based on the user attribute of each snapshot, a set of snapshots is selected from the stack, and the VM is modified by merging the VM files belonging to the set of snapshots selected.