From 07a1448a43d858454dca0524ba4557bf2bcdf404 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benedikt Rollik Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:05:01 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 1/5] docs(ins): additional information qga --- .../understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx | 11 +++++++++++ 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+) diff --git a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx index 0f4b3f1a43..0b587224da 100644 --- a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx +++ b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx @@ -15,6 +15,12 @@ This page provides essential insights into this mechanism. This documentation page does not apply to Instances running the Microsoft Windows operating system. +## What is the QGA? + +The QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) is a daemon intended to be run within virtual machines, facilitating communication between the guest OS and the QEMU hypervisor for tasks like system configuration and resource monitoring. + +The source code for QGA is publicly available and located in the [QEMU repository on GitLab](https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/docs/interop/qemu-ga.rst). + ## What are the features provided by QGA? Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the following feature: @@ -23,6 +29,11 @@ Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the follow Additional features may be added in the future. +## What are the performance impacts of running the QGA inside my VM? + +The performance impact of running the QGA are negligible. The agent consumes very low amounts of RAM (<5 MB RAM) and CPU (<0.1% CPU) and there is no measurable I/O or network overhead while being idle. +The only operation performed by the agent is reading/writing a file **in the VM** each time a public IP is attached/detached to the VM. + ## 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. From a4c2868a328615c4b6fa488b4b4b58bcdddf2cc5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benedikt Rollik Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:09:15 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 2/5] docs(ins): update wording --- .../reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx | 8 ++++---- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx index 0b587224da..8a216843bc 100644 --- a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx +++ b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx @@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ This page provides essential insights into this mechanism. ## What is the QGA? -The QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) is a daemon intended to be run within virtual machines, facilitating communication between the guest OS and the QEMU hypervisor for tasks like system configuration and resource monitoring. +The QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) is a daemon designed to run inside virtual machines, enabling communication between the guest operating system and the QEMU hypervisor. It supports tasks such as system configuration and resource monitoring. -The source code for QGA is publicly available and located in the [QEMU repository on GitLab](https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/docs/interop/qemu-ga.rst). +The QGA source code is publicly available in the [QEMU repository on GitLab](https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/docs/interop/qemu-ga.rst). ## What are the features provided by QGA? @@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ Additional features may be added in the future. ## What are the performance impacts of running the QGA inside my VM? -The performance impact of running the QGA are negligible. The agent consumes very low amounts of RAM (<5 MB RAM) and CPU (<0.1% CPU) and there is no measurable I/O or network overhead while being idle. -The only operation performed by the agent is reading/writing a file **in the VM** each time a public IP is attached/detached to the VM. +The performance impact of running the QGA is negligible. The agent consumes very little RAM (<5 MB) and CPU (<0.1%), and there is no measurable I/O or network overhead when idle. +The only operation the agent performs is reading from or writing to a file **in the VM** each time a public IP is attached to or detached from the VM. ## Checking QGA's status From ff2803e13f2e13182e5e9d4bbf908a43a278cc16 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benedikt Rollik Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 11:28:22 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 3/5] feat(ins): add info about scaleway-vmagent --- .../reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx index 8a216843bc..7a2777fda2 100644 --- a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx +++ b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx @@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ The QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) is a daemon designed to run inside virtual machines, The QGA source code is publicly available in the [QEMU repository on GitLab](https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/docs/interop/qemu-ga.rst). + + In addition to the QGA, another daemon is preinstalled on recently created Instances: `scaleway-vmagent`. This agent was developed by Scaleway's engineering teams and is used to send metrics about your VM to [Cockpit](/cockpit/) to monitor the status of your Instance. + You can find the source code of the agent on Scaleway's [Launchpad repository](https://launchpad.net/~scaleway/+archive/ubuntu/stable/+packages). + + ## What are the features provided by QGA? Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the following feature: From 76bfc753dbf5b70ba0923fa968dfff928f0d0719 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benedikt Rollik Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:31:29 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 4/5] docs(ins): add configuration information --- .../understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx | 11 +++++++++++ 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+) diff --git a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx index 7a2777fda2..6fd20b9b7e 100644 --- a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx +++ b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx @@ -26,6 +26,17 @@ The QGA source code is publicly available in the [QEMU repository on GitLab](htt You can find the source code of the agent on Scaleway's [Launchpad repository](https://launchpad.net/~scaleway/+archive/ubuntu/stable/+packages). +## Which tasks are allowed for the QGA? + +Scaleway has intentionally restricted the QGA to the following allowed tasks (configured in `/etc/qemu/qemu-ga.conf`): + +* `guest-file-close` +* `guest-file-open` +* `guest-file-write` +* `guest-ping` + +All other Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) are disabled to limit the scope of external execution from the QEMU hypervisor. + ## What are the features provided by QGA? Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the following feature: From 164db68e3a12628ad90bb3b38b12e46989d515fb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benedikt Rollik Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:56:16 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 5/5] Update pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx Co-authored-by: Rowena Jones <36301604+RoRoJ@users.noreply.github.com> --- .../reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx index 6fd20b9b7e..f5c95b6bb6 100644 --- a/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx +++ b/pages/instances/reference-content/understanding-qemu-guest-agent.mdx @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Running the QEMU Guest Agent (QGA) on your Instance currently enables the follow Additional features may be added in the future. -## What are the performance impacts of running the QGA inside my VM? +## What is the performance impact of running the QGA inside my VM? The performance impact of running the QGA is negligible. The agent consumes very little RAM (<5 MB) and CPU (<0.1%), and there is no measurable I/O or network overhead when idle. The only operation the agent performs is reading from or writing to a file **in the VM** each time a public IP is attached to or detached from the VM.