Fixing Missing SMBIOS UUID in Windows VMs on KVM/QEMU 8.1+

Published 2025-12-23 by Josue Valentin

After upgrading to QEMU 8.1 or newer, Windows virtual machines running on KVM/libvirt may no longer expose their SMBIOS UUID to the guest operating system. As a result, Windows WMI queries return no UUID.

The Problem

This issue affects software that relies on UUID values, including:

• Veeam Backup and Replication
• Veeam VSPC (Service Provider Console)
• Veeam Agents
• SQL-backed applications that bind configuration or licensing to UUID values

The Solution

To fix this issue, you need to explicitly set the SMBIOS UUID in your VM configuration. Edit the libvirt XML configuration:

<sysinfo type="smbios">
  <system>
    <entry name="uuid">YOUR-UUID-HERE</entry>
  </system>
</sysinfo>

Replace YOUR-UUID-HERE with a valid UUID. You can generate one using:

uuidgen

Verification

After applying the change, verify the UUID is visible in Windows:

wmic csproduct get uuid

Or using PowerShell:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystemProduct | Select-Object UUID

This should now return the UUID you configured in the libvirt XML.