I thank everyone for their input. I prefer to have the guests suspend rather than shutdown because many of my customers start things up manually and get annoyed when they come back to find them not running. Most of the time it is for a simple reboot of the host to make a new kernel or some other update active. This particular time though I had to move all the equipment to a new co-location facility because the old provider had become far too greedy. So I guess rdate -s is probably the best solution. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Eskimo North Linux Friendly Internet Access, Shell Accounts, and Hosting. Knowledgeable human assistance, not telephone trees or script readers. See our web site: http://www.eskimo.com/ (206) 812-0051 or (800) 246-6874.