backup stop mode doesn't stop the VM

[ad-computing]

Hello,

I don't know exactly when the problem started, but the backup in "stop mode" do not stop actualy the VM. I'm currently running PVE 9.1.6.
This problem occurs with or without qemu-guest-agent active.
The VM are mostly running DEBIAN 13. but It's the same problem with a Windows server 2022.

 

[driley]

Hi,

the backup "stop mode" does not forcefully stop the VM. It tries to perform a clean shutdown sequence.
The guest os might be ignoring the shutdown request or it might be blocked by some process.

Have you tried shutting down the VM manually using the "shutdown" command? If so did this work?

What is the exact error message you get when performing the backup?

You can also try adjusting the stop timeout in '/etc/vzdump.conf' by uncommeting the line 'stopwait' and setting a higher value then the default (10).
for example:
stopwait: 20

 

[ad-computing]

Thank's for your quick answer.

I've no error message :
NFO: starting new backup job: vzdump 201 --remove 0 --compress zstd --storage backup --mode stop --node pmx1 --notification-mode notification-system --notes-template '{{guestname}}'
INFO: Starting Backup of VM 201 (qemu)
INFO: Backup started at 2026-03-11 16:50:39
INFO: status = running
INFO: backup mode: stop
INFO: ionice priority: 7
INFO: VM Name: pmx1-bunkerweb
INFO: include disk 'scsi0' 'local:201/vm-201-disk-0.qcow2' 40G
INFO: stopping virtual guest
INFO: creating vzdump archive '/mnt/pve/backup/dump/vzdump-qemu-201-2026_03_11-16_50_38.vma.zst'
INFO: starting kvm to execute backup task
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The stop task seems to work but it does nothing..

If I stop the vm from the host with the command "stop [vmid]" it works :

root@pmx1:~# qm status 201
status: running
root@pmx1:~# qm stop 201
root@pmx1:~# qm status 201
status: stopped

I modified the "/etc/vzdump.conf" stopwait with value "1" (the parameter is not in seconds but in in minutes) but it doesn’t work either
From my point of view it means that the planned backups with the stop mode are not reliables. I will script the backups between a « qm stop » and a « qm start ».

 

[driley]

Hi,

thanks for the detailed logs.

What happens if you try:
qm shutdown 201
How long does that take?

When the qemu-guest-agent is active do you get an error response when running:
qm agent 201 ping

When you deactivated the qemu-guest-agent did you make sure to uncheck the "QEMU guest agent" checkbox as well in the VMs option tab?

If none of this helps to find a solution the scripting will work for sure.