recycle-vm.sh

A simple Bash script to recycle Proxmox Virtual Machines (VMs) automatically.
It attempts a graceful shutdown of a given VM, waits a configurable amount of time, and then starts it back up.
Useful for scheduled maintenance, memory cleanup, or refreshing long-running services.

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Features

• Accepts VMID as the first argument.
• Optional wait time (in seconds) as the second argument (defaults to 60).
• Attempts graceful shutdown via qm shutdown.
• Falls back to qm stop if the guest does not shut down cleanly.
• Loops up to ~5 minutes, checking if the VM is stopped before starting it again.

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Usage

recycle-vm.sh <VMID> [WAIT_SECS]

• <VMID> – The Proxmox VM ID to recycle. (Required)
• [WAIT_SECS] – Number of seconds to wait for graceful shutdown. (Optional, default: 60)

Example:

bash /usr/local/sbin/recycle-vm.sh 102 120

This will recycle VM 102, giving it 120 seconds to shut down before forcing a stop.

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Cron Example

You can schedule regular VM recycling with cron. For example:

0 4 * * * bash /usr/local/sbin/recycle-vm.sh 102 60
0 3 * * * bash /usr/local/sbin/recycle-vm.sh 103 60

This runs the script nightly at 3 AM and 4 AM for VMs 103 and 102, respectively.

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Requirements

• Proxmox host with the qm CLI tool available.
• Run as a user with permissions to manage VMs (e.g., root).

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Author

Created by BeanGreen247