Reboot.md

Proxmox VM Scheduled Reboot for Minecraft Server

This tutorial provides a setup for automating the reboot of a Proxmox VM, In my case, I utilised this to manage RAM bloat for my Minecraft server VM. A cron job runs a bash script at 5:00 AM (when my friends are most likely not playing I hope 💀) every 3 days to reboot the VM, ensuring stable performance.

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Prerequisites

• Proxmox VE installed and configured.
• A Proxmox VM.
• Sudo/root access to the Proxmox host.

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Setup Instructions

Step 1: Create the Bash Script

1. Log in to your Proxmox host.
2. Create a directory for scripts if it doesn’t already exist (assuming you are root user):

   mkdir /root/scripts  

3. Create reboot.sh script:

   touch /root/scripts/reboot.sh

4. Add the follow code to the script:

   #!/bin/bash
   qm reboot $1 # takes the first argument as the VM number

Step 2: Test the Script

Before setting up the cron job, test the script manually:

bash /root/scripts/reboot.sh <VM Number>

This will reboot the specified VM.

Step 3: Set Up the Cron Job

1. Open the crontab editor:

   crontab -e  

2. Add the following line to schedule the job at 5:00 AM every 3 days:

   0 5 */3 * * bash /root/scripts/reboot.sh <VM Number>

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Notes

• The qm reboot command is specific to Proxmox and can be found in the documentation
• Ensure the cron job has sufficient permission to execute the file path
• if issues arise, system logs can be checked with:

  journalctl -t CRON