I've been searching around for a solution to use Wake-On-LAN (WOL) for VMs and Containers in Proxmox, in my case this makes a Windows 11 VM I use when out and about via TeamViewer very easy to boot and doesn't require waking up via Home Assistant first 
All of the following resource are taken from THIS THREAD talking about WOL, individual resources and credits are given below.
WOL should now work If something doesn't work or if a VM/Container doesn't want to wake up you can check the log output via
All of the following resource are taken from THIS THREAD talking about WOL, individual resources and credits are given below.
Create Wake-On-LAN script
1. Click on your Proxmox Node and go to "Shell"
2. Type in
cd ~ followed by mkdir scripts, then navigate into that folder with cd scripts3. Next type in
nano wol_hack.sh and paste the following script into that file (credit goes to @henr0 - Source):
Bash:
#!/bin/bash
# Attempts to start Proxmox VM or LXC that matches MAC address received on WOL message
# This could be dangerous if abused by spamming the interface with many packages
# so I would like to try no more than once per 5 seconds.
# In my case useful with Moonlight client
# Uses tcpdump on default proxmox interface, change the interface if needed.
while true; do
sleep 5
wake_mac=$(tcpdump -c 1 -UlnXi vmbr1 ether proto 0x0842 or udp port 9 2>/dev/null |\
sed -nE 's/^.*20: (ffff|.... ....) (..)(..) (..)(..) (..)(..).*$/\2:\3:\4:\5:\6:\7/p')
echo "Captured magic packet for address: \"${wake_mac}\""
echo -n "Looking for existing VM: "
matches=($(grep -il ${wake_mac} /etc/pve/qemu-server/*))
if [[ ${#matches[*]} -eq 0 ]]; then
echo "${#matches[*]} found"
echo -n "Looking for existing LXC: "
matches=($(grep -il ${wake_mac} /etc/pve/lxc/*))
if [[ ${#matches[*]} -eq 0 ]]; then
echo "${#matches[*]} found"
continue
elif [[ ${#matches[*]} -gt 1 ]]; then
echo "${#matches[*]} found, using first found"
else
echo "${#matches[*]} found"
fi
vm_file=$(basename ${matches[0]})
vm_id=${vm_file%.*}
details=$(pct status ${vm_id} -verbose | egrep "^name|^status")
name=$(echo ${details} | awk '{print $2}')
status=$(echo ${details} | awk '{print $4}')
if [[ "${status}" != "stopped" ]]; then
echo "SKIPPED CONTAINER ${vm_id} : ${name} is ${status}"
else
echo "STARTING CONTAINER ${vm_id} : ${name} is ${status}"
pct start ${vm_id}
fi
continue
elif [[ ${#matches[*]} -gt 1 ]]; then
echo "${#matches[*]} found, using first found"
else
echo "${#matches[*]} found"
fi
vm_file=$(basename ${matches[0]})
vm_id=${vm_file%.*}
details=$(qm status ${vm_id} -verbose | egrep "^name|^status")
name=$(echo ${details} | awk '{print $2}')
status=$(echo ${details} | awk '{print $4}')
if [[ "${status}" != "stopped" ]]; then
echo "SKIPPED VM ${vm_id} : ${name} is ${status}"
else
echo "STARTING VM ${vm_id} : ${name} is ${status}"
qm start ${vm_id}
fi
done4. Save by pressing
Ctrl + X and then Enter5. Make the script executable via
chmod +x wol_hack.shAdd new auto-start service
1. Create a new systemd service file with the following command:
nano /etc/systemd/system/pve-wakeonlanhack.service2. Paste the following code into this file (credit goes to @jacobxtyler - Source):
Code:
[Unit]
Description=Wake-on-LAN for Proxmox Virtual Environments
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
User=root
ExecStart=/root/scripts/wol_hack.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target3. Save by pressing
Ctrl + X and then Enter4. Enable and Start this service via the following commands:
systemctl enable pve-wakeonlanhacksystemctl start pve-wakeonlanhackWOL should now work
If something doesn't work or if a VM/Container doesn't want to wake up you can check the log output via systemctl status pve-wakeonlanhack and see what it does. A successful boot attempt should look like this:
Code:
wol_hack.sh[2000563]: Captured magic packet for address: "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:x"
wol_hack.sh[2000563]: Looking for existing VM: 1 found
wol_hack.sh[2000563]: STARTING VM 900 : Win11Desktop is stopped
qm[2001050]: <root@pam> starting task UPID:pve2:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:qmstart:900:root@pam:
qm[2001051]: start VM 900: UPID:pve2:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:qmstart:900:root@pam:
wol_hack.sh[2001050]: swtpm_setup: Not overwriting existing state file.
qm[2001050]: <root@pam> end task UPID:pve2:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX:qmstart:900:root@pam: OKTroubleshooting
error: stdbuf: failed to run command ‘xxd’: No such file or directory- (Might not be an issue anymore as the script above got rewritten, but mentioning this just in case)
Some people have reported this in the original thread which seems to be an issue with older Proxmox installs. Try to install the following package which should resolve this:apt install xxd
- (Might not be an issue anymore as the script above got rewritten, but mentioning this just in case)
- WOL packets from pfSense aren't working
-
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