Nutanix Data Protection enforces strict snapshot lifecycle controls to ensure recovery integrity. The system prevents deletion of any snapshot that is actively referenced by a running operation. The documentation states:
"Snapshots that are part of an active recovery or restore workflow cannot be deleted until the operation completes, as they are required to maintain data consistency and restore points." This includes DR failover tests, restorations, or live recovery workflows. Corrupted snapshots do not cause deletion failure; the system can still delete a corrupted snapshot unless it's attached to an active workflow.
Ransomware affects guest data, not the snapshot metadata in Prism. Approval policies do not block snapshot deletion unless tied to automation policies, which is rare and would produce a different error.
Therefore, active recovery operations are the most common and most accurate cause when deletion is blocked.