6.7.3. Shutting Down or Pausing Virtual Machines
It is recommended that a virtual machine be shut down from within its console. However, occasionally there is a need to shut down the virtual machine from the Administration Portal. The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform provides for an orderly shutdown if the guest tools are installed.
It is best practice that all users are logged off from a Windows virtual machine before shutting down. If any users are still logged in, the following Windows message displays on the virtual machine, Other people are logged on to this computer. Shutting down Windows might cause them to lose data. Do you want to continue shutting down?, and the virtual machine remains with a Powering Off status in the Administration Portal.
If a virtual machine cannot be properly shut down, since, for example, the operating system is not responsive, you might need to force a shutdown, which is equivalent to pulling out the power cord of a physical machine.
Exercise extreme caution when forcing shutdown of a virtual machine, as data loss may occur. Shutdown of virtual machines should be planned after due consideration, preferably at times that will least impact users.
To pause a virtual machine:
Click the Virtual Machines tab.
If the virtual machine that you want to edit is not visible in the list, perform a search (see
Section 1.2, “Search”).
Select the virtual machine.
Click the
Pause (

) button.
The Status of the virtual machine changes to Paused.
Pausing a virtual machine puts it into Hibernate mode, where the virtual machine state is preserved. Applications continue running, but CPU usage is zero.
To shut down a virtual machine:
Click the Virtual Machines tab.
If the virtual machine that you want to edit is not visible in the list, perform a search (see
Section 1.2, “Search”).
Select the virtual machine.
Click the
Power Off (

) button.
The Status of the virtual machine changes to Down.