Error "Cannot delete inactive domain with snapshots" when deleting VM

Description

When attempting to delete a virtual machine (VM), the following error occurs:

Unhandled exception: Error code: 55

Error message: Requested operation is not valid: cannot delete inactive domain with 1 snapshots

Meanwhile, the VM does not have any snapshots in the web interface (Virtual Machines → VM snapshots).

The error occurs when the VM has snapshots that were created using the virsh utility. Such snapshots are not displayed in the VMmanager web interface. At the same time, the system blocks the deletion of VMs with snapshots, regardless of how they were created.

Diagnostics

To check for the presence of snapshots:

1. Connect to the cluster node via SSH. For more information about connecting via SSH, see Workstation setup.
2. Determine the internal name of the VM:
   

   sudo virsh list --all | grep <VM_name>

   Example output

   sudo virsh list --all | grep testtest
    460   5450_testtest                  running

   Comment

   • testtest — VM name;
   • 5450_testtest — internal VM name.
3. Display a list of snapshots for this VM:

   sudo virsh snapshot-list <VM_internal_name>

   Comment

   <VM_internal_name> — the name obtained in step 2
   If the list is not empty, this confirms the cause of the error.

Solution

To resolve the issue, delete all VM snapshots:

1. Connect to the cluster node via SSH. For more information about connecting via SSH, see Workstation setup.
2. Run the following command for each VM snapshot:
   

   sudo virsh snapshot-delete <VM_internal_name> <snapshot_name>

   Comment

   • <VM_internal_name> — obtained in step 2 of Diagnostics above;
   • <snapshot_name> — obtained in step 3 of Diagnostics above.