Tag: virtualization

Citrix XenServer How to Force Shutdown Virtual Machines

Sometimes you just can’t get a VM to shutdown, it maybe an issue with XenTools or sun spots. Here is a list of commands that will help you get that damn thing shutdown.

  1. Disable High Availability (HA) so you don’t run into issues
  2. Log into the Xenserver host that is running your VM with issues via ssh or console via XenCenter
  3. Run the following command to list VMs and their UUIDs
    xe vm-list
  4. First you can try just the normal shutdown command with force
    xe vm-shutdown uuid=<UUID from step 3> force=true
  5. If that just hangs, use CONTROL+C to kill it off and try to reset the power state.  The force is required on this command
    xe vm-reset-powerstate  uuid=<UUID from step 3> force=true
  6. If the VM is still not shutdown, we may need to destroy the domain
  7. Run this command to get the domain id of the VM.  It is the number in the first row of output
    list_domains
  8. Now run this command using the domain ID from the output of step 7
    Before XenServer 7.x:
    /opt/xensource/debug/xenops destroy_domain -domid <DOMID from step 7>
    XenServer 7.x and greater:
    xl destroy <DOMID from step 7>