Terminating a virtual server

Terminate a running, paused, or crashed virtual server with or without saving its system image.

About this task

Refer to Virtual server life cycle to see the effect of the virsh commands to terminate a virtual server depending on its state.

Procedure

Description	Command	Comments
To properly terminate a virtual server:	shutdown
To save a system image and terminate a virtual server properly:	managedsave
To terminate a virtual server immediately:	destroy	Use the --graceful option to try to properly terminate the virtual server before terminating it forcefully.

In most cases, you use the virsh shutdown command to properly terminate a virtual server.
If the virtual server does not respond, it is not terminated.
While the virtual server is shutting down, it traverses the state in shutdown and finally enters the shutdown shut off state.
```
# virsh shutdown <VS>
```
Example:
To properly shut down virtual server vserv1, issue:
```
# virsh shutdown vserv1
Domain vserv1 is being shutdown
```
Save the system image of a running or a paused virtual server and terminate it thereafter with the virsh managedsave command.
```
# virsh managedsave <VS>
```
Example:
To save the system image of virtual server vserv2 and properly shut it down, issue:
```
# virsh managedsave vserv2
Domain vserv2 state saved by libvirt
```
The system image of the virtual server is resumed at the time of the next start. Then, the state of the virtual server is either running or paused, depending on the last state of the virtual server and the managedsave command options.

Note: The managedsave operation will save the virtual server state in a file in the host filesystem. This file has at least the size of the virtual server memory. Make sure the host filesystem has enough space to hold the virtual server state.
When a virtual server is not responding, you can terminate it immediately with the virsh destroy command.
The virtual server enters the destroyed shut off state. This command might cause a loss of data.
```
# virsh destroy <VS>
```
The --graceful option tries to properly terminate the virtual server, and only if it is not responding in a reasonable amount of time, it is forcefully terminated:
```
# virsh destroy <VS> --graceful
```
Example:
To force a shutdown of virtual server vserv3, issue:
```
# virsh destroy vserv3
Domain vserv3 destroyed
```
<VS>

Is the name of the virtual server as specified in its domain configuration-XML file.