"Snapshot hierarchy is too deep", while taking snapshot or cloning a powered on VM with high number of virtual disks"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Error: "Snapshot hierarchy is too deep", reported while taking snapshot or initiating clone task on a powered ON Virtual machine, which has reached the maximum limit of Snapshots based on the number of virtual disks attached.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x

Cause

For Virtual Machine having more than 256 disks, the maximum number of snapshots is 2. While attempting to take the 3rd snapshot, Error: "Snapshot hierarchy is too deep" is observed.

Same error is seen while initiating a clone task for a powered ON Virtual Machine, a temporary snapshot would be created for the powered ON Virtual Machine.

This is as per the limitation, 

Count of Virtual Machine Disks	Snapshot limitation
1 - 184	32 Snapshots
184 - 256	16 Snapshots
256+	2 Snapshots

Note: Maximum of 32 snapshots are supported in a chain. However, for a better performance use only 2 to 3 snapshots. Do not use a single snapshot for more than 72 hours.

Best practices for using VMware snapshots in the vSphere environment

Resolution

Remove a snapshot before taking a new snapshot or cloning the Virtual Machine.

Additional Information

Please refer: VMware Configuration Maximums