---
title: "GCP VM Pause Failure Alarms with Error ‘Unsupported_Operation’"
slug: "gcp-vm-pause-failure-alarms-with-error-unsupported-operation"
updated: 2024-07-16T06:24:37Z
published: 2024-07-16T06:24:37Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.workspot.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# GCP VM Pause Failure Alarms with Error ‘Unsupported_Operation’

### **Issue:**

A GCP VM with pause resume enabled failed to pause with an unsupported operation error.

*If the VM is not paused in a GCP Desktop pool with Pause Resume enabled, it will remain running, causing the node to be kept in GCP 24/7 and incurring costs.*

Workspot Support monitors and identifies the Pause failed Alarms in the Watch monitoring tool as below.

- Alarm: Pause Failed

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/57bf647b-79bf-44d7-b644-c1e894092faa.png)

- Message for the Alarm: The error happened while pausing the desktop.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/a6eb7ca3-bc1d-4d1d-bddc-e1966f342823.png)

- Details of the Error: Unsupported operation Instance suspend failed due to guest timeout.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/919cb6a2-caef-4128-91f7-6cafd88629ec.png)

**From GCP Console:**

The events where the instance failed to suspend with an ‘Unsupported_Operation’ Error.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/0e7d2ac2-025e-44bb-9d65-934ba83bdbe3.png)

The detailed status of the Error is ‘Instance suspend failed due to guest timeout’.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/ce69a588-aebf-435e-b116-f1f6a2dc412f.png)

**Cause:**

You can not suspend (Pause) a Windows VM when the display timeout is set or the sleep button is disabled. A Windows VM with a power policy set to high performance and display timeout set to a value greater than 0 may turn off the display after the timeout.

When a suspend request is sent to a VM where the display was turned off, the suspend request restarts the display instead of suspending the VM.

**Resolution:**

To resolve this issue, do the following: Logon to the virtual machine that failed to pause, open the command prompt with Administrator privileges, and run the following commands:

1. Disable the display timeout using the following command:

powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0

1. Enable the sleep button using the following command:

*powercfg -setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 96996bc0-ad50-47ec-923b-6f41874dd9eb 1*

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/95228c7a-a0b4-4a18-a35d-0105af2e8850.png)

To verify the Pause functionality, disconnect/logout from the VM and then manually initiate a Pause Action from the Control.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/434e2aa6-ea06-42b8-8f5b-1d76f35798b8.png)

The status of the VM will appear as Paused if it has been successfully Paused.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/ad9153e1-c8de-4f56-94f2-b717a1fc3a68/Images/Documentation/8ceae1a8-1994-4b14-8dc9-3d9170c3adc8.png)

The following GCP troubleshooting document can be used to troubleshoot suspend issues:

[https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-suspend-resume#you_can_not_suspend_a_windows_vm_when_the_display_timeout_is_set_or_the_sleep_button_is_disabl](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-suspend-resume#you_can_not_suspend_a_windows_vm_when_the_display_timeout_is_set_or_the_sleep_button_is_disabled)