Virtual Machine Errors (code 1905)

Situation

A VM backup plan terminates with one of the following errors:

• Virtual machine error. Snapshot Hierarchy Is Too Deep

Snapshot Hierarchy Is Too Deep

Cause

This error occurs in case if a snapshot chain exceeds the limit (10 snapshots). Typically, Backup for Windows removes the oldest snapshot in case the limit is about to be reached.

Solution

In case the error persists, you may try to solve the issue by consolidating or removing unnecessary snapshots.

Consolidate Snapshots

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot

1. Show the Needs Consolidation column for a list of virtual machines.
2. Navigate to an inventory object that contains a list of virtual machines, for example a vCenter Server instance, a host, or a cluster.
3. Click the VMs tab, then click Virtual Machines.
4. Click the expand button next to any column names.
5. Select Show/Hide Columns > Needs Consolidation.

6. To consolidate the files, right-click the virtual machine, then select Snapshots > Consolidate.
7. Check the Needs Consolidation column to verify that the task succeeded.
8. If the task succeeds, a Not Required value appears in the Needs Consolidation column.
9. If the task fails, check the event log for the failure reason.
10. Correct the error and retry the consolidation task.

Delete Snapshots

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you are familiar with the Delete and Delete all actions and how they might affect virtual machine performance
• Required Privileges: Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot on the virtual machine.

1. Right-click the virtual machine, then select Manage Snapshots.
2. To locate a virtual machine, select a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, host, or vApp.
3. Switch to the VMs tab, then click Virtual Machines.
4. In the Snapshot Manager, click a snapshot to select it.
5. Select whether to delete a single snapshot or all snapshots.
6. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.
7. Click Close to exit the Snapshot Manager.