Consolidate Snapshot option!

Hi all,

I am learning ESXi 5 and I a saw an option for consolidate snapshot.

I a test xp machine and it has three snapshots.

I googled consolidate snapshot feature and came to know if there are snapshots in a VM and they are not seen by the snapshot manager then we should run the consolidate option --- is this right ?

what will happen after I run the consolidate option ? Will the snapshots come up again in the snapahot manager ? How does this work in the background

Thanks