Creating Snapshot of vm using shared GPU fails with the error: Operation Failed! "The Operation is not allowed in the current state".

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When we try to create Snapshot it fails with the error: Operation Failed! "The Operation is not allowed in the current state".

Cause

It is not possible to take a snapshot of a virtual machine (VM) that utilizes PCI pass-through. PCI pass-through provides a direct connection to the physical hardware, preventing the ability for ESXi to suspend the device to allow the snapshot process to complete.

Resolution

VM's which are configured with PCI pass-through does not support snapshot operations.

To backup VM's without triggering snapshots from a backup application, engage the backup vendor. 

Additional Information

It is possible to take a powered-off snapshot of a virtual machine (VM) with passthru enabled; however, errors are encountered under certain conditions:

Errors Observed:

• When VM is powered on:

  "The operation is not allowed in the current state."

• When VM is powered off:

  "An error occurred while taking a snapshot: Invalid change tracker error code."

Actions Taken:

• Identify if Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is enabled on the VM.

• Removed the following CBT-related entries from the VM's .vmx file or set it to False

   

  SCSI0:0.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

  SCSI0:1.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

  ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

• Perform a power cycle of the VM.

• After applying these changes, snapshot creation should succeed.