How to install Qemu guest agent for CentOS

In this article, we will help you to install the Qemu guest agent on your virtual private server. This agent is a helper daemon that exchanges information between the quest and the host and executes commands in the guest for snapshot or backup. The guest agent is used for mainly two things one for properly shut down the guest and the second is to freeze the guest file system when making a backup.

Step 1: Log in using SSH

You must be logged in via SSH as sudo or root user. Please read this article for instructions if you don’t know how to connect.

Step 2: Install qemu guest agent

yum install qemu-guest-agent

Step 3: Start qemu guest agent

The guest may not start automatically after installation. You can start it manually with the following command:

systemctl start qemu-guest-agent

Step 4: Verify

Verify that the Qemu quest agent is running.

systemctl status qemu-guest-agent