Overview
Guest Agent Errors occur when the virtual machine guest agent is temporarily unavailable or unresponsive. The guest agent is responsible for handling management operations between the Softdrive platform and the virtual machine, such as status reporting, power actions, and system coordination.
When the guest agent is unavailable, certain actions may fail or display warning messages, even though the virtual machine itself may still be running.
In most cases, guest agent errors are temporary and recover automatically once internal system processes complete.
Common Causes
Guest agent errors are usually triggered by one or more of the following:
Temporary internal processes running inside the virtual machine
Guest agent service restarting or becoming momentarily unresponsive
High system load or resource contention
Operating system tasks such as updates, shutdowns, or startup routines
Recent power or system state changes on the virtual machine
These errors are not typically caused by user actions, network connectivity, firewall rules, or client-side configuration.
Troubleshooting
Things to do when this happens:
Retry the action
Wait a short moment and retry the operation. Many guest agent issues resolve automatically once internal processes complete.Allow time for system processes to finish
If the virtual machine is booting, updating, or shutting down, the guest agent may be temporarily unavailable.Reboot the virtual machine
If the issue persists, rebooting the VM is the most effective recovery step and typically restores guest agent functionality.
If the error continues after a reboot or occurs repeatedly, please contact Softdrive Support.
When opening a support ticket, include as much detail as possible:
Exact guest agent error message displayed
Timestamp of when the error occurred
Virtual machine name and organization
Screenshots of the error message
Actions taken before the issue occurred
Email: support@softdrive.co
Providing complete information allows the Softdrive engineering team to investigate the issue efficiently.