Cannot restore VM (code 2045)

Situation

A Hyper-V restore plan fails with the following error: Cannot restore VM. Restoring virtual machines to Hyper-V requires deletion of target Hyper-V VM. Failed to delete Hyper-V machine: test-restore-VM

Cause

This error occurs when you try to restore Hyper-V cluster VMs to the original location while the VM in the target location is running.

Solution

To restore clustered VMs to the original location, the running VM must be deleted manually. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Open Failover Cluster Manager.
2. Find the required cluster, expand it, then select Roles.
3. Select the VM listed in the error, right-click it, then select Remove.

4. Once the running VM is deleted, run the restore plan again.