/sbin/shutdown -h now doesn't?

[Paul Lussier]

This seems to have been a problem for years on Linux, but I've never
understood why.  Every now and then I encounter a system where
shutdown, reboot, or halt doesn't.  It just spits a message back at
you claiming the system is about to go down, but then nothing ever
happens.  Does anyone have any idea why?  It's really agravating.

Even more annoying is when you have 300+ machines, all running
*exactly* the same install, and the hardware is mostly all the same
(at least, there are groups of machines where the hw is identical)
that, say, 30 machines all shutdown fine, but one refuses.

Has anyone else ever noticed this *and* bothered to figure out why ? :)
I'd love to know!

Thanks

-- 

Seeya,
Paul