Unexpected Snapshot Deletion Failures in the Job Sessions for ONTAP 9.13.1

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Article Applicability

The issue documented in this article affects builds 12.0.0.1420 P20230718 and lower.

This issue was resolved starting in Veeam Backup & Replication build 12.1.0.2131.

Challenge

VeeamAUX snapshots cannot be deleted immediately on ONTAP 9.13.1 or later; they are instead deleted later by tracked actions, causing cluttered logs and UI sessions.

• FC and iSCSI (NFS is not affected)

• Backup job (always) with the error:

  Failed to delete snapshot VeeamAUX_is_sm_1G3TRqSPOYLWmSKSVtrGBg of volume VeeamAUX_is_sm_Backup_3nPFLaxtmDioAeIzLDfLtB Details: Attempt to delete snapshot when clone is busy

• Manual snapshot deletion _(only when rescan of or restore from the snapshot was triggered during the last 12h) _with the error:

  Failed to remove storage snapshot <snapshot-name> Error: Snapshot copy "<snapshot-name>" of volume "is_sv" in Vserver "svm-fc" has not expired or is locked. Use the "snapshot show -fields owners, expiry-time, snaplock-expiry-time" command to view the expiry and lock status of the Snapshot copy.
  

• Snapshot-only job retention_ (only when rescan of or restore from the snapshot was triggered during the last 12h)_:

No error/warning messages in session, but retention may not work as expected.

Cause

Due to a change starting in ONTAP 9.13.1, cloned volumes enter the recovery queue for 12 hours by default. The parent snapshot cannot be deleted until the clone is removed from the storage and leaves the recovery queue.

This change is covered in: <https://mysupport.netapp.com/site/bugs-online/product/ONTAP/BURT/1212186&gt;

When a regular flexible volume is deleted, it is placed into an ONTAP recovery queue so that it can be recovered at the later point of time before its retention time is lapsed. Unlike a regular flexible volume, when a clone volume is deleted accidentally, it is not placed into ONTAP recovery queue and as a result, recovery is not possible.

Solution

This issue was resolved starting in Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1.

Starting with Veeam Backup & Replication build 12.1.0.2131, the software will check for the resulting clone volume in the recovery queue and purge it to prevent the parent snapshot removal from being blocked.

More Information

Workaround:

Set the global recovery queue hours setting on the storage to zero.

WARNING: This setting will impactall volumes including production ones and should be used carefully.

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