diff --git a/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_signal.t b/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_signal.t
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d10d15307
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_signal.t
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+use File::Spec;
+use FindBin;
+use Test::More;
+
+my $script = File::Spec->catfile( $FindBin::Bin, '..', '..',
+    'xCAT', 'postscripts', 'remoteshell' );
+plan skip_all => 'remoteshell not found' unless -r $script;
+
+open( my $fh, '<', $script ) or die "Unable to read $script: $!";
+my $source = do { local $/; <$fh> };
+close($fh);
+
+# A kill without the hyphen reads the signal number as one more process id, so
+# the target gets the default signal, which a process can catch, and the
+# process with that id is signalled as well.
+my @bare = ( $source =~ /^[^#\n]*\bkill\s+\d/gm );
+is( scalar(@bare), 0, 'no kill gives the signal number without a hyphen' );
+
+like( $source, qr/kill -9 \$PIDLIST/,
+    'the ssh daemon gets the signal that a process cannot catch' );
+
+done_testing();
diff --git a/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_wait.t b/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_wait.t
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..505fd2418
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-test/unit/remoteshell_kill_wait.t
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+use File::Spec;
+use FindBin;
+use Test::More;
+
+my $script = File::Spec->catfile( $FindBin::Bin, '..', '..',
+    'xCAT', 'postscripts', 'remoteshell' );
+plan skip_all => 'remoteshell not found' unless -r $script;
+plan skip_all => 'no bash'               unless -x '/bin/bash';
+
+open( my $fh, '<', $script ) or die "Unable to read $script: $!";
+my $source = do { local $/; <$fh> };
+close($fh);
+
+my ($loop) = $source =~ /(waited=0\n.*?\n      done)/s;
+ok( defined($loop), 'the wait loop was found in the postscript' );
+
+# Run the loop of the postscript against real processes, with a shorter bound
+# so that the test does not spend the whole timeout of the postscript.
+sub waits_for {
+    my (@pids) = @_;
+    ( my $body = $loop ) =~ s/\$waited -lt 10/\$waited -lt 3/;
+    my $list = join( ' ', @pids );
+    my $out = `/bin/bash -c 'PIDLIST="$list"\n$body\necho \$alive' 2>/dev/null`;
+    chomp $out;
+    return $out;
+}
+
+# A process that is still running must be reported as alive, and the loop must
+# give up rather than run for ever.
+my $child = fork();
+if ( !defined $child ) { plan skip_all => 'cannot fork' }
+if ( $child == 0 ) { exec( 'sleep', '30' ); exit 1 }
+my $start = time;
+is( waits_for($child), '1', 'a process that is still running is reported alive' );
+cmp_ok( time - $start, '<', 10, 'the loop gives up instead of waiting for ever' );
+kill 'KILL', $child;
+waitpid( $child, 0 );
+
+# A process that has ended must be reported as gone, without waiting.
+my $gone = fork();
+if ( $gone == 0 ) { exit 0 }
+waitpid( $gone, 0 );
+$start = time;
+is( waits_for($gone), '0', 'a process that has ended is reported gone' );
+cmp_ok( time - $start, '<', 3, 'no time is spent once the process is gone' );
+
+# The bound of the postscript itself, and the shape of the test.
+like( $source, qr/while \[ \$waited -lt 10 \]/, 'the postscript waits at most ten seconds' );
+like( $source, qr/kill -0 \$pid/, 'the check for a running process sends no signal' );
+like( $source, qr/kill -9 \$PIDLIST/, 'the daemon still gets the signal it cannot catch' );
+
+# The wait has to happen before the new daemon starts.
+my ($block) = $source =~ /(PIDLIST=.*?\/usr\/sbin\/sshd)/s;
+ok( defined($block), 'the fallback block was found' );
+cmp_ok( index( $block, 'waited=0' ), '<', index( $block, '/usr/sbin/sshd' ),
+    'the wait comes before the new daemon starts' );
+
+done_testing();
diff --git a/xCAT/postscripts/remoteshell b/xCAT/postscripts/remoteshell
index 28f4a3dfa..3378b9253 100755
--- a/xCAT/postscripts/remoteshell
+++ b/xCAT/postscripts/remoteshell
@@ -648,7 +648,19 @@ fi
 #try to kill the process and start
 if [ "$?" != "0" ];then
    PIDLIST=`ps aux | grep -v grep | grep "/usr/sbin/sshd"|awk -F" " '{print $2}'|xargs`
-   [ -n "$PIDLIST" ] && kill 9 $PIDLIST
+   if [ -n "$PIDLIST" ]; then
+      kill -9 $PIDLIST
+      waited=0
+      while [ $waited -lt 10 ]; do
+         alive=0
+         for pid in $PIDLIST; do
+            if kill -0 $pid 2>/dev/null; then alive=1; fi
+         done
+         if [ $alive -eq 0 ]; then break; fi
+         sleep 1
+         waited=`expr $waited + 1`
+      done
+   fi
    /usr/sbin/sshd
 fi
 kill -9 $CREDPID