[virt-tools-list] Win2003 VMs not shuting down

[Phil Meyer]

On 06/27/2011 07:13 AM, Bruno Lamps wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have 2 VMs with windows 2003 in production. Twice a week, I backup 
> these machines, using simple crontab commands. I do something like this:
>
> 01 00 *** root virsh shutdown vm1
> 05 00 *** root virsh destroy vm1
> 08 00 *** root rsync vm1 path/
> 18 00 *** root virsh start vm1

If you walk up to a physical 2k3 system when no-one is logged in to the 
console, and short press the power button, what happens?

Nothing.

If someone is logged in to the console, the short power press will be 
received and an orderly shutdown begins.

The same is true of Linux based systems with no power management 
installed.  A short power press does nothing.

That is the crux of the problem.  There is no way to 'guarantee' that 
the operating system of any given VM will respond properly to apic or 
acpi signals.  They are  'software' dependent.

This is why on KVM and other hardware virtualized VMs, reboot is not 
supported, and you cannot depend on shutdown to work.  The problem is 
further complicated by the issue of file system corruption probabilities 
going way up when VMs are 'forced' down using 'kill process' commands 
like: 'virsh destroy'.

Today, I don't think that there is a good way to do it except be on the 
'console' of the VM and check to see if it goes down properly.

This issue is actively being discussed, but there is no immediate 
solution that I am aware of.

Good luck!