24.10. Gracefully shutting down guests

Installing virtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guests with the Minimal installation installation option will not install the acpid package.

Without the acpid package, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest does not shut down when the virsh shutdown command is executed. The virsh shutdown command is designed to gracefully shut down virtualized guests.

Using virsh shutdown is easier and safer for system administration. Without graceful shut down with the virsh shutdown command a system administrator must log into a virtualized guest manually or send the Ctrl-Alt-Del key combination to each guest.

Other virtualized operating systems

Other virtualized operating systems may be affected by this issue. The virsh shutdown command requires that the guest operating system is configured to handle ACPI shut down requests. Many operating systems require additional configuration on the guest operating system to accept ACPI shut down requests.

Procedure 24.1. Workaround for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Install the acpid package
The acpid service listen and processes ACPI requests.
Log into the guest and install the acpid package on the guest:
```
# yum install acpid
```
Enable the acpid service
Set the acpid service to start during the guest boot sequence and start the service:
```
# chkconfig acpid on
# service acpid start
```

The guest is now configured to shut down when the virsh shutdown command is used.