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

**URL:** <https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-inputs-proxmox-fails-to-parse-config-with-fields-but-they-werent-used-error/57537>\
**Category:** Telegraf\
**Tags:** telegraf, docker, plugin\
**Created:** [July 2, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-inputs-proxmox-fails-to-parse-config-with-fields-but-they-werent-used-error/57537 "2025-07-02T20:24:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nuvibes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/nuvibes/32/20011_2.png) [@nuvibes](https://community.influxdata.com/u/nuvibes)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-inputs-proxmox-fails-to-parse-config-with-fields-but-they-werent-used-error/57537/1 "2025-07-02T20:24:13Z")

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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:

```bash
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`:**

- **The Command I Run:**

- **The Exact Error Message:**

**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.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![skartikey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/skartikey/32/19710_2.png) [@skartikey](https://community.influxdata.com/u/skartikey)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-inputs-proxmox-fails-to-parse-config-with-fields-but-they-werent-used-error/57537/2 "2025-07-15T16:45:31Z")

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Hi @nuvibes, welcome to the InfluxData Community!

Looking at your configuration and the error message, it seems the issue is with the use of the `node_status` field; this field isn’t part of the Proxmox input plugin.

For reference, you can check the available fields and configuration options in the plugin documentation here:  
[https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/proxmox](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/proxmox)

Let us know if you have any other questions!