Understanding the QEMU Guest Agent in Scaleway Instances

Reviewed on 28 October 2024 • Published on 28 October 2024

Some features of the Instances product require Scaleway’s infrastructure to query or exchange information with your Instance. To enable this communication, a software component must run on the guest operating system: the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA).

This page provides essential insights into this mechanism.

Note

This documentation page does not apply to Instances running the Microsoft Windows operating system.

What are the features provided by QGA?

Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the following feature:

Automatic network reconfiguration upon flexible IP attachment or detachment Learn how to enable/disable this feature.

Additional features may be added in the future.

Checking QGA’s status

Since March 1st, 2024, all Scaleway-provided GNU/Linux and InstantApp images for Instances come with QGA pre-installed and enabled by default.

To verify that QGA is running on your Instance, use the following command:

# systemctl is-active qemu-guest-agent.service

If the output is active, QGA is running, and you are ready to benefit from the associated features. If the output is inactive, you may need to install and/or activate QGA.

Opting in

Follow these steps to enable QGA on an Instance where it is currently inactive.

Installation

Instances created from images older than March 1st, 2024 may require manual installation of the qemu-guest-agent package:

Fedora / AlmaLinux / RockyLinux / CentOS

# yum -y --best install qemu-guest-agent

Debian / Ubuntu

# apt-get update
# apt-get -y install qemu-guest-agent

Activation

After installing the package, start the qemu-guest-agent.service by either:

Rebooting your Instance, or

Running the following command:

# systemctl start qemu-guest-agent.service

Opting Out

Follow these steps to disable QGA and the associated Scaleway features.

Deactivation

Important

Disabling QGA is not recommended, as doing so also disables all the Scaleway features it provides.

To stop and disable QGA, run:

# systemctl stop qemu-guest-agent.service
# systemctl mask qemu-guest-agent.service

This stops the service and prevents it from starting on subsequent reboots.

Deinstallation (Optional)

Note

You do not necessarily need to deinstall QGA to opt out. Deactivating the service is sufficient.

If you prefer to completely remove QGA, ensure the service is stopped first, then run:

Fedora / AlmaLinux / RockyLinux / CentOS

# yum -y remove qemu-guest-agent

Debian / Ubuntu

# apt-get -y purge qemu-guest-agent