Document URL: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/virtualization_deployment_and_administration_guide/sect-starting_suspending_resuming_saving_and_restoring_a_guest_virtual_machine-starting_a_defined_domain Section Number and Name: 20.6. STARTING, RESUMING, AND RESTORING A VIRTUAL MACHINE Describe the issue: The section talks about options which can be used for guest shutdown/reboot with --mode . I had a customer who tried these options but it failed with error, it did not work on my test machine too, gave errors like below: ~~~ [root@ ~]# virsh reboot test_qemu --mode initctl error: Failed to reboot domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x4) in function qemuDomainReboot [root@ ~]# virsh reboot test_qemu --mode signal error: Failed to reboot domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x8) in function qemuDomainReboot [root@ ~]# virsh reboot test_qemu --mode paravirt error: Failed to reboot domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x10) in function qemuDomainReboot [root@ ~]# virsh shutdown test_qemu --mode initctl error: Failed to shutdown domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x4) in function qemuDomainShutdownFlags [root@ ~]# virsh shutdown test_qemu --mode signal error: Failed to shutdown domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x8) in function qemuDomainShutdownFlags [root@ ~]# virsh shutdown test_qemu --mode paravirt error: Failed to shutdown domain test_qemu error: unsupported flags (0x10) in function qemuDomainShutdownFlags ~~~ Upon checking on the mail list we got below inputs: ~~~ libvirt's QEMU driver, used to manage KVM guests, only supports the 'agent' and 'acpi' reboot modes because those are the ones QEMU itself supports, so that's why customer is getting an error message when trying to use any other mode. The 'signal' and 'initctl' modes are used by the LXC driver. ~~~ So these details should be mentioned in the documentation. Suggestions for improvement: add the details below in the documentation to get clarity on when to use these options: initctl,signal,paravirt,agent,acpi ~~~ libvirt's QEMU driver, used to manage KVM guests, only supports the 'agent' and 'acpi' reboot modes because those are the ones QEMU itself supports The 'signal' and 'initctl' modes are used by the LXC driver. ~~~ Additional information: