Proxmox Staggered Shutdown

Automatically shuts down all running LXC containers and VMs on a Proxmox host at a scheduled time. Shutdowns are staggered to reduce load spikes, with graceful shutdown first and force-stop as a fallback.

Features

• Staggered shutdown — configurable delay between each shutdown command to avoid simultaneous load spikes
• Two-phase approach — graceful shutdown first, automatic force-stop if the timeout is exceeded
• Parallel phases — LXC containers and VMs are each handled sequentially, but both phases complete before the script moves on
• Log rotation — automatically rotates the log file if it exceeds 10 MB
• Detailed logging — every action is timestamped and written to /var/log/proxmox-midnight-shutdown.log

Files

File	Description
proxmox-shutdown.sh	The main shutdown script
SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md	Full installation and configuration guide

Quick Start

1. Copy the script to your Proxmox host

scp proxmox-shutdown.sh root@your-proxmox-host:/usr/local/bin/

2. Make it executable

ssh root@your-proxmox-host
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/proxmox-shutdown.sh

3. Schedule it

Option A — cron (simple):

crontab -e
# Add this line to run at midnight:
0 0 * * * /usr/local/bin/proxmox-shutdown.sh

Option B — systemd timer (recommended):

# Create the service unit
cat > /etc/systemd/system/proxmox-shutdown.service <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Shutdown all Proxmox VMs and LXCs

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/proxmox-shutdown.sh
EOF

# Create the timer unit
cat > /etc/systemd/system/proxmox-shutdown.timer <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Run Proxmox shutdown at midnight

[Timer]
OnCalendar=00:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
EOF

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now proxmox-shutdown.timer

Configuration

All options are at the top of proxmox-shutdown.sh:

Variable	Default	Description
STAGGER_DELAY	5	Seconds between each shutdown command
SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT	300	Seconds to wait for graceful shutdown (5 min)
FORCE_STOP_TIMEOUT	600	Total timeout before giving up entirely (10 min)
LOG_FILE	/var/log/proxmox-midnight-shutdown.log	Log file path

Change the scheduled time

For cron, adjust the first two fields:

0 2    * * *   # 2:00 AM
30 23  * * *   # 11:30 PM

For the systemd timer, update OnCalendar in the timer file:

OnCalendar=02:00:00    # 2:00 AM
OnCalendar=23:30:00    # 11:30 PM

Exclude specific VMs or containers

Edit the script's for loops to skip particular IDs:

# Skip VM 100
for vmid in $(qm list | awk 'NR>1 && $3=="running" && $1!=100 {print $1}'); do

# Skip LXC 200
for ctid in $(pct list | awk 'NR>1 && $2=="running" && $1!=200 {print $1}'); do

Shutdown Sequence

Phase 1 — LXC containers: graceful shutdown, one by one with stagger delay
Phase 2 — VMs:            graceful shutdown, one by one with stagger delay
Phase 3 — Wait:           poll every 10s until all stopped or SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT reached
Phase 4 — Force stop:     any remaining containers/VMs are forcibly stopped

Viewing Logs

tail -f /var/log/proxmox-midnight-shutdown.log

Testing

Run the script manually to verify it works before relying on the schedule. Do not run during production hours.

/usr/local/bin/proxmox-shutdown.sh

Notes

• The script does not shut down the Proxmox host itself — only guests
• Requires root privileges (standard for Proxmox management scripts)
• pct and qm must be available at /usr/sbin/ (default on Proxmox)

License

MIT — use freely, modify as needed.