diff --git a/PVE/QemuServer.pm b/PVE/QemuServer.pm
index 9117588b..9c20a7ce 100644
--- a/PVE/QemuServer.pm
+++ b/PVE/QemuServer.pm
@@ -6163,6 +6163,11 @@ sub vm_commandline {
     my $defaults = load_defaults();
 
     my $cmd = config_to_command($storecfg, $vmid, $conf, $defaults, $forcemachine, $forcecpu);
+    # if the vm is not running, we need to clean up the reserved/created devices
+    if (!PVE::QemuServer::Helpers::vm_running_locally($vmid)) {
+	eval { cleanup_pci_devices($vmid, $conf) };
+	warn $@ if $@;
+    }
 
     return PVE::Tools::cmd2string($cmd);
 }
diff --git a/PVE/QemuServer/PCI.pm b/PVE/QemuServer/PCI.pm
index 3b0da39d..3aa260d6 100644
--- a/PVE/QemuServer/PCI.pm
+++ b/PVE/QemuServer/PCI.pm
@@ -523,6 +523,9 @@ sub parse_hostpci_devices {
 my sub choose_hostpci_devices {
     my ($devices, $vmid) = @_;
 
+    # if the vm is running, we must be in 'showcmd', so don't actually reserve or create anything
+    my $is_running = PVE::QemuServer::Helpers::vm_running_locally($vmid) ? 1 : 0;
+
     my $used = {};
 
     my $add_used_device = sub {
@@ -555,8 +558,10 @@ my sub choose_hostpci_devices {
 	    my $ids = [map { $_->{id} } @$alternative];
 
 	    next if grep { defined($used->{$_}) } @$ids; # already used
-	    eval { reserve_pci_usage($ids, $vmid, 10, undef) };
-	    next if $@;
+	    if (!$is_running) {
+		eval { reserve_pci_usage($ids, $vmid, 10, undef) };
+		next if $@;
+	    }
 
 	    # found one that is not used or reserved
 	    $add_used_device->($alternative);
diff --git a/test/run_config2command_tests.pl b/test/run_config2command_tests.pl
index d48ef562..9b5e87ff 100755
--- a/test/run_config2command_tests.pl
+++ b/test/run_config2command_tests.pl
@@ -196,7 +196,10 @@ $qemu_server_module->mock(
     },
     get_initiator_name => sub {
 	return 'iqn.1993-08.org.debian:01:aabbccddeeff';
-    }
+    },
+    cleanup_pci_devices => {
+	# do nothing
+    },
 );
 
 my $qemu_server_config;