Snapshot icon is greyed out on a virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to manage snapshots for a virtual machine in the vCenter Server inventory, the Take Snapshot, Revert, Delete, and Delete All options are greyed out.
• Snapshot options are fully functional when accessing the ESXi host directly via the Host Client.
• Virtual Machine is locked by 3rd party software which initiates a task but fails to gracefully clear the corresponding lock records in the vCenter Server database. Following error found in hostd.log

Failed to retrieve replication configuration for VM ## (vm-name): replication not enabled

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This state occurs when vSphere Replication fails to properly unlock the virtual machine after an operation. This leaves a "stale lock" in the vCenter Server database, which prevents the vCenter UI from enabling snapshot management. See Virtual Machine management options grayed out due to third-party software locks in vCenter

Resolution

Force an inventory refresh by re-registering the virtual machine

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine in the vCenter inventory and select Remove from Inventory.
3. Navigate to the datastore associated with the virtual machine.
4. Browse to the folder containing the virtual machine.
5. Locate the .vmx file.
6. Right-click the .vmx file and select Register VM.

    

Once the VM is re-registered, return to the vCenter Server interface to verify that the snapshot options are now available.

Additional Information

Virtual Machine management options grayed out due to third-party software locks in vCenter