Isilon: SyncIQ job fails with "SyncIQ failed to take a snapshot on source cluster. Snapshots initialization error"

Issue

A SyncIQ policy fails within the first five minutes of starting with error Snapshots initialization error.
 

Symptoms

A SyncIQ policy fails almost immediately and an alert similar to the following appears:

policy name: TestSnapshots target: 192.168.117.200) SyncIQ failed to take a snapshot on source cluster. Snapshots initialization error

The following is logged in /var/log/messages on the coordinator node:

2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <0.3> maw-1(id1) /boot/kernel.amd64/kernel: [bam_snapshot.c:1487](pid 5271="isi_migrate")(tid=100646) Failing snap_create. Non-head file to snapshot 4 2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <3.3> maw-1(id1) 
isi_migrate[5271]: coord[TestSnapshots:1435855951]: Can't create new snapshot (SIQ-d132211dc41614d7332515911c21d1cf-new): snapshot create failed: Invalid argument 2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <3.3> maw-1(id1) 
isi_migrate[5271]: coord[TestSnapshots:1435855951]: siq_create_alert: type: 12 (policy name: TestSnapshots target: 192.168.117.200) SyncIQ failed to take a snapshot on source cluster. 
Snapshots initialization error 2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <3.2> maw-1(id1) isi_migrate[5271]: coord[TestSnapshots:1435855951]: (policy name: TestSnapshots target: 192.168.117.200) 
SyncIQ failed to take a snapshot on source cluster. Snapshots initialization error 2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <3.2> maw-1(id1) isi_migrate[5271]: Exiting on ilog(IL_FATAL)

Cause

The source root directory defined in the SyncIQ policy is set to something within /ifs/.snapshot. This is not a supported configuration.
 

Verify the Issue.

SyncIQ policy has "source root directory" set to a /ifs/.snapshot/ directory path. For example:

maw-1# isi sync policies view TestSnapshots
                        ID: d132211dc41614d7332515911c21d1cf
                       Name: TestSnapshots
                       Path: /ifs/.snapshot/testSnap2/data/SyncIQTesting
                     Action: copy
                    Enabled: Yes
                     Target: 192.168.117.200
                Description: Testing the ability to make a copy SyncIQ policy of /ifs/.snapshot/etc files
            Check Integrity: Yes
                Target Path: /ifs/data
    Target Snapshot Archive: No   
Target Snapshot Pattern: SIQ_%{SrcCluster}_%{PolicyName}_%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M
 Target Snapshot Expiration: Never
      Target Snapshot Alias: SIQ_%{SrcCluster}_%{PolicyName}
Target Detect Modifications: Yes
    Source Snapshot Archive: No
    Source Snapshot Pattern:
 Source Snapshot Expiration: Never
                   Schedule: Manually scheduled
                  Log Level: notice
          Log Removed Files: No
           Workers Per Node: 3
          Disable File Split: No
Changelist creation enabled: No
                    Resolve: -
             Last Job State: failed
               Last Started: 2015-07-02T10:52:31
               Last Success: -

/var/log/messages reports the following errors:

2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <0.3> maw-1(id1) /boot/kernel.amd64/kernel: [bam_snapshot.c:1487](pid 5271="isi_migrate")(tid=100646) Failing snap_create. Non-head file to snapshot 4 
2015-07-02T10:52:47-06:00 <3.3> maw-1(id1) isi_migrate[5271]: coord[TestSnapshots:1435855951]: Can't create new snapshot (SIQ-d132211dc41614d7332515911c21d1cf-new): snapshot create failed: Invalid argument

Note: the error message "Failing snap_create. Non-head file to snapshot." It is not possible to create a snapshot of a snapshot, which is why the policy fails.