Telegraf inputs.proxmox fails to parse config with "fields but they weren't used" error

Telegraf
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1

I’m having a persistent issue getting the inputs.proxmox plugin to work. My Telegraf container fails on startup with a configuration parsing error, even though I can successfully query the Proxmox API from the host machine.

My Goal:
Collect basic node metrics from a Proxmox host using the Telegraf inputs.proxmox plugin and send them to InfluxDB.

My Environment:

  • Proxmox VE: 8.4.1
  • Telegraf Host: Ubuntu 24.04 LXC (Privileged, Nesting enabled)
  • Docker: 28.3.0
  • Telegraf Image: telegraf:1.29-alpine

What Works:
I have confirmed 100% that my Proxmox API token and network are correct. From the shell of the LXC that runs Telegraf, this curl command works perfectly and returns the expected JSON:

curl -k "https://192.168.1.x:8006/api2/json/nodes" -H 'Authorization: PVEAPIToken=monitoring-agent@pve!telegraf-token=MY-TOKEN' | jq

What Fails:
When I try to run Telegraf with the --test flag, it fails to parse the configuration file.

  • My telegraf.conf:

    # Global Telegraf Agent Configuration
[agent]
  interval = "10s"
  flush_interval = "10s"
  hostname = "telegraf-proxmox"

# Output plugin for InfluxDB
[[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
  urls = ["http://192.168.1.x:8086"]
  token = "MY_INFLUX_TOKEN"
  organization = "myorg-monitoring"
  bucket = "proxmox_system"

# Input plugin for Proxmox
[[inputs.proxmox]]
  base_url = "https://192.168.1.x:8006"
  api_token = "monitoring-agent@pve!telegraf-token=MY-TOKEN"
  tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/pve-root-ca.pem"
  node_status = true

  • The Command I Run:

    docker run --rm \
  -v "/opt/monitoring-stack/telegraf.conf":/etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf:ro \
  -v "/opt/monitoring-stack/pve-root-ca.pem":/etc/telegraf/pve-root-ca.pem:ro \
  --network host \
  docker.io/library/telegraf:1.29-alpine --test

  • The Exact Error Message:

    E! error loading config file /etc/telegraf/telegraf.conf: plugin inputs.proxmox: line 15: configuration specified the fields ["node_status"], but they weren't used

Troubleshooting Done:
I’ve tried recreating the telegraf.conf file multiple times from scratch using different methods (nano, cat, echo scripts) to eliminate any possibility of invisible characters or encoding issues (like tabs vs. spaces or CRLF line endings). The error is always the same.