Using libvirt 1.2.18 (-1 Arch) and QEMU git-master (2.4.0.r40384.2d69736). pm-utils 1.4.1-6. acpid 2.0.23-4 Installed using Q35 chipset. I can perform virsh # shutdown <vmname>, and watching the client VM console see a graceful shutdown. On host: ===== # systemctl reboot {{{ client VM console immediately blanks out - I do NOT see a graceful shutdown }}} libvirt-guests.sh: Running guests on default URI: <vmname> libvirt-guests.sh: Shuitting down guests on default URI... libvirt-guests.sh: Starting shutdown on guest: <vmname> libvirt-guests.sh: Waiting for 1 guests to shut down, 300 seconds left A stop job is running for Suspend Active Libvirt Guests... libvirt-guests.sh: Waiting for 1 guests to shut down ===== In about 85 seconds, it moves past this, but guest was not suspended or gracefully shutdown. Guest's "last" shows a crash. And, watching on the VM console, the minute systemctl restart runs on the host, the VM console disconnects. ===== # systemctl status libvirt-guests ● libvirt-guests.service - Suspend Active Libvirt Guests Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirt-guests.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: active (exited) since Mon 2015-08-10 20:27:57 EDT; 6s ago Docs: man:libvirtd(8) http://libvirt.org Process: 751 ExecStart=/usr/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests.sh start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 751 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) ===== $ cat /etc/conf.d/libvirt-guests BYPASS_CACHE=0 CONNECT_RETRIES=10 ON_BOOT=start ON_SHUTDOWN=shutdown PARALLEL_SHUTDOWN=4 RETRIES_SLEEP=1 SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT=300 START_DELAY=0 URIS=default ===== A virsh # shutdown <vmname> or an in-guest systemctl poweroff takes a few seconds (3-5?) ===== {{{ libvirt-guests.service is: }}} [Unit] Description=Suspend Active Libvirt Guests After=network.target libvirtd.service time-sync.target Documentation=man:libvirtd(8) Documentation=http://libvirt.org [Service] EnvironmentFile=-/etc/conf.d/libvirt-guests # Hack just call traditional service until we factor # out the code ExecStart=/usr/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests.sh start ExecStop=/usr/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests.sh stop Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=yes StandardOutput=journal+console [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target ===== Strangely, manually running "/usr/lib/libvirt/libvirt-guests.sh stop" lets me see a graceful shutdown on the VM console and shows (executing in a few seconds): Running guests on default URI: <vmname> Shutting down guests on default URI... Starting shutdown on guest: <vmname> Waiting for 1 guests to shut down, 300 seconds left Shutdown of guest <vmname> complete. =====