Symptoms
When your deployment options are set to take a pre-deploy snapshot of a hosted VM, the deployment fails with error "Pre-deploy snapshot failed":
Deployment logs show the following error:
HostedVirtualDeployment.cs:555|VMware.Vim.VimException: Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation. ---> System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation.
Cause
All versions of ESXi licensing allow you to take manual snapshots. However, the free version of ESXi has locked APIs, so with that free version you are unable to initiate that task remotely even though you can take snapshots manually.
Resolution
The only way to unlock the ESXi APIs is to purchase licensing for it. As of the publication of this doc, any level of paid licensing will unlock the APIs, so any license tier will suffice for this operation.
Licensing is always subject to change - please consult VMWare if you have further questions about their licensing for ESXi or other products
Affected Products
Shavlik Protect 9.2.x
Ivanti Patch for Windows Servers 9.3.x