Troubleshooting Azure VM Backup failures: “Snapshot VM sub task timed out” error

First published on TECHNET on Apr 28, 2016
Here’s a quick tip for you in case you’re using Microsoft Azure Backup for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and a scheduled VM backup fails with the following error message in the job error details in the Azure Portal:

Could not communicate with the VM agent for snapshot status - Snapshot VM sub task timed out.

There are four common causes for this error:

• The VM does not have Internet access.


• The Microsoft Azure VM agent installed in the VM is out of date (for Linux VMs).


• The backup extension failed to update or load.


• The snapshots status cannot be retrieved or the snapshots cannot be taken.

To read about the solutions for each of these, please see the following:

Azure VM Backup fails: Could not communicate with the VM agent for snapshot status - Snapshot VM sub task timed out

J.C. Hornbeck , Solution Asset PM
Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Group