Using VHD snapshots with Windows Azure Virtual Machines

I often use Windows Azure Virtual Machines to create a test environment. A requirement of such a test environment is to be able to quickly take one or more snapshots of a virtual machine and selectively restore a given snapshot later. Unfortunately Windows Azure (IaaS) does not provide this functionality out of the box.
This is where I use the CloudXplorer tool.

1. Take a snapshot of the disk (while the VM is stopped)

2. Start the VM, make changes and perform tests. When you have completed the tests, shutdown the VM.
3. Use CloudXplorer to promote the snapshot after breaking the disk lease.

4. Use CloudXplorer to (re)acquire the lease.

You can now restart the VM in the state where the snapshot was taken.