Backup of VM failed - start failed: QEMU exited with code 1

[velocity08]

Hi All

anyone else experiencing failed backups for templates or powered down VM's?

see output below as an example.

103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: Starting Backup of VM 103 (qemu)
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: status = stopped
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: backup mode: stop
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: ionice priority: 7
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: VM Name: Centos
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: include disk 'virtio0' 'vmdata-linux:base-103-disk-0' 100G
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: creating Proxmox Backup Server archive 'vm/103/2023-04-13T16:00:02Z'
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:02 INFO: starting kvm to execute backup task
103: 2023-04-14 02:00:03 ERROR: Backup of VM 103 failed - start failed: QEMU exited with code 1

have been seeing these regularly since we upgraded to PVE 7.x but mainly on 1 or 2 hosts only.

in this instance the CentOS VM/ template is the 1st to be backed up and sits on SSD storage on the same server so there shouldnt be any latency creating a time out.

""Cheers
G

 

[Dunuin]

The backup fails because it can't start the VM in time. Maybe any passthroughed devices already in use by other VMs or the storage not ready yet? Or ISOs missing because a NFS/SMB Share isn`t available or something similar?

 

[velocity08]

The backup fails because it can't start the VM in time. Maybe any passthroughed devices already in use by other VMs or the storage not ready yet? Or ISOs missing because a NFS/SMB Share isn`t available or something similar?

Thanks @Dunuin

have checked all of these items and none are true.

- no ISO attached
- as advised its sitting on local storage SSD's on the same host no latency
- no pass-through devices attached
- the VM is a template and so are the other VM's that also fail, they are either powered down (off) or are templates.
- The VM's are off so they don't need to be started or stopped
- there are no network shares connected and no storage connected to network shares all VM's are local SSD only.

anyone else have some ideas they would like to share?

please read the above before replying so we are not covering the same ground.

thank you

""G

 

[fweber]

Hi! Some questions that might help troubleshoot this:

• Do I understand correctly that there are also some VMs (not templates) for which the backup job fails with "QEMU exited with code 1"?
• If yes, are you able to start those VMs?
• Could you post the config of one of those VMs (or templates) for which the backup fails? (the output of qm config VMID)
• Could you show the output of pveversion -v?
• From which PVE version did you upgrade to 7.x?
• Which version of Proxmox Backup Server are you running?

 

[Dunuin]

The VM's are off so they don't need to be started or stopped

All VMs need to be started in order to back them up. Even when already stopped and doing a stop-mode backup. Otherwise PVE can't read the virtual disks to back them up, as QEMU is needed for that.