Remove snapshot failed with One of the disks in this virtual machine is already in use by a virtual machine or by a snapshot.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• All consolidation efforts failed with the following error:

Operation failed!
Task name Remove snapshot
Target  <VM name>
Status  An error occurred while deleting a snapshot: One of the disks in this virtual machine is already in use by a virtual machine or by a snapshot.

• Backups were failing.
• Delete snapshot failed.
• VM in powered on status.
• HOSTD log:

An error occurred while deleting a snapshot: One of the disks in this virtual machine is already in use by a virtual machine or by a snapshot.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Cause

Upon investigation the snapshots were all related to the backup appliance.

Snapshot chain was broken.

Disk chain in VMDK file is different with ESXi web UI view.

Resolution

Power off the VM. The source VM was then powered off, causing a service outage.

Clone VM.

Then new virtual machine was then powered on, it assumed the identity of the original, restoring original service.

Additional Information

How to check the Disk Chain:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleNumber=342618