Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots

• ONTAP 9
• File based snap restore
• Snapshot based NetApp software (Snap Creator (CommVault), SnapManagers, SnapCenter)
• 3rd party backup applications using single file snapshot restore integration with ONTAP
• VMWare Native Snapshots (not classic  redo-log based VMWare snapshots)

• A manual or scheduled Snapshot operation is failing with the following error:

1/5/2019 09:05:00 Cluster1-01 ERROR wafl.snap.create.skip.reason: vol01 <UUID>: Skipping creation of hourly.<time> Snapshot copy (Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots. Try again after sometime.).

• If the affected volume is source of a Snapmirror relationship, a manual or schedule snapmirror update can fail with last-transfer-error showing:

Last Transfer Error: Failed to create Snapshot copy <snapmirror.snapshotname> on volume <svm>:<volume>. (Failed to create Snapshot copy <snapmirror.snapshotname> on volume <svm_uuid>:<volume_name>. (Volume has clones backed by snapshots))

•  ONTAP ems log shows app.log.error event for SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere.

[app.log.err:error]: SCV: SnapCenter VMware OVA Software 6.1: (0) Error: Snapshot operation failed [Storage System: Storage1]Snapshot operation failed for some of the volumes [Storage System: Storage1] [Volume:vol1] Error: Snapshot copy operation failed for volume vol1. Reason: Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots. Try again after sometime. Failed in volume 'vol1', Snapshot copy operation failed for volume vol1. Reason: Snapshot operation not allowed due to clones backed by snapshots. Try again after sometime.