Proxmox - Guests (VMs and Containers) - Qemu-guest-agent - Install Qemu-guest-agent

Install the guest-agent in each VM

sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent

sudo yum install qemu-guest-agent

Download the virtio-win driver iso (see Windows VirtIO Drivers).

Install the virtio-serial driver:
- Attach the ISO to your windows VM (virtio-*.iso)
- Go to the Windows Device Manager.
- Look for PCI Simple Communications Controller
- Right Click → Update Driver and select on the mounted iso in DRIVE:\vioserial\<OSVERSION>\ where <OSVERSION> is your Windows Version (e.g. 2k12R2 for Windows 2012 R2).

After that, you have to install the qemu-guest-agent:

Go to the mounted ISO in explorer.
The guest agent installer is in the directory guest-agent.
Execute the installer with double click (either qemu-ga-x86_64.msi (64-bit) or qemu-ga-i386.msi (32-bit).

After that the qemu-guest-agent should be up and running.

PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-Service QEMU-GA

returns:

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  QEMU-GA            QEMU Guest Agent

NOTE: If it is not running, use the Services control panel to start it and make sure that it will start automatically on the next boot.

Depending on the distribution, the guest agent might not start automatically after the installation.

Start it either directly with

sudo systemctl start qemu-guest-agent

Then enable the service to autostart (permanently) if not auto started, with

sudo systemctl enable qemu-guest-agent

qm set VMID --agent 1

The communication with the guest agent takes place over a unix socket located in /var/run/qemu-server/<my_vmid>.qga.

Test the communication qm agent:

qm agent <vmid> ping

NOTE: If the qemu-guest-agent is correctly runnning in the VM, it will return without an error message.