CRON job not Shutting Down Server 2012

[B0M0A0K]

I have a proxmox installation (V:8.3.3) with two VMs (one server 2012, the other Linux). I have been playing with getting CRON jobs to startup and shutdown these VMs periodically as I don't need them running all the time.

The Linux install runs without a problem, both shutting down and starting up again, but the Server 2012 will not shutdown. It reports the following error:

"QEMU Guest Agent is not running - VM 1201 qmp command 'guest-ping' failed - got timeout
TASK ERROR: VM quit/powerdown failed - got timeout".

I have rerun the virtio-win-0.1.189 tools installer and made sure that the service is running on the server, I have also set the "if service fails" option to restart. Just for good measure, I have also run the virtio-win-0.1.266 tools installer, in case it needs the latest version.

None of this seems to be working and the server 2012 install refuses to shutdown according to the CRON job.

00 5 * * * /usr/sbin/qm start 1201
30 5 * * * /usr/sbin/qm shutdown 1201

I just wondered if anyone had seen this behavior or could suggest a solution please?

 

[_gabriel]

Make sure virtio serial driver is correctly installed / present in Windows Device Manager.
Another way is schedule shutdown from within Windows scheduler itself.

 

[B0M0A0K]

@_gabriel Thanks for the help. I have included a couple of screenshots of the service status and the device manager. Admittedly, when I looked at device manager both the "VirtIO Balloon Driver" and the "VirtIO Serial Driver" had yellow exclamation marks by them (Hadn't thought to look here previously). I changed the associated driver version for both and they are trouble free (for now) - I will reboot the server and see if they stay that way.

 

[B0M0A0K]

Just tried a test CRON job and it worked just fine, startup and shutdown both working as anticipated. Thanks for the assist @_gabriel