This is probably a problem with VE start, not stop. VE started badly and 
can not stop.

This is known issue (a bad interaction of Ubuntu's upstart (init 
replacement) and vzctl) which is fixed in upcoming vzctl release, see 
http://bugzilla.openvz.org/662

Now you have three options:
1. Wait for next vzctl release (should happen real soon now).
2. Replace upstart with init (sysvinit) inside a VE
3. Rebuild vzctl either from GIT or just adding the patch from git 
linked from bug #622.

Cliff Wells wrote:
> Hardware: dual Opteron 242
> Kernel: linux-2.6.18-openvz-028.049
> Host OS: Gentoo
> Guest OS: ubuntu-7.10-i386-minimal
>
> Both host and VE are fresh installs.
>
> I noticed that "vzctl stop 101" would fail with
>
> Stopping VPS ...
> Unable to stop VPS, operation timed out
>
>
> This of course also prevented me from properly shutting down the system
> (power off required).
>
> I found a post [1] that seemed related, which led to investigating halt
> commands:
>
> vps1 ~ # vzctl enter 101
> root@localhost:/# halt -p
> shutdown: Unable to send message: Connection refused
> root@localhost:/# halt
> shutdown: Unable to send message: Connection refused 
> root@localhost:/dev# halt -fp
> got signal 9
> exited from VE 101
> vps1 ~ #
>
>
> Does this appear to be a problem with OVZ or with the guest template?
>
>
>
> [1] http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=msg&goto=6354&
>
>
>