diff --git a/sql/sitevars-create.sql b/sql/sitevars-create.sql
index eff2d1086c77c990ba40d3ac087f326427cf2952..62f47fa33fd566082f6454a93b0db29caf68dc74 100644
--- a/sql/sitevars-create.sql
+++ b/sql/sitevars-create.sql
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/interval','30','60','Interval in min
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/ntpdrift',NULL,'240','Interval in minutes between reporting back NTP drift changes (0==never report)',0);
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/cvsup',NULL,'720','Interval in minutes between remote node checks for software updates (0==never check)',0);
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/local',NULL,'3','Interval in minutes between local node status reports (0==never report)',0);
-INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/vnode',NULL,'10','Interval in minutes between virtual node status reports (0==never report)',0);
+INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/vnode',NULL,'5','Interval in minutes between virtual node status reports (0==never report)',0);
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/plab',NULL,'10','Interval in minutes between planetlab node status reports (0==never report)',0);
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/wa',NULL,'1','Interval in minutes between widearea node status reports (0==never report)',0);
 INSERT INTO sitevariables VALUES ('watchdog/isalive/dead_time','10','120','Time, in minutes, after which to consider a node dead if it has not checked in via tha watchdog',0);
diff --git a/sql/updates/4/394 b/sql/updates/4/394
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d0a3ae3b215c4b69b000e1f991e60601958b6379
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sql/updates/4/394
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#
+# Shorten isalive for vnodes.
+#
+use strict;
+use libdb;
+
+sub DoUpdate($$$)
+{
+    my ($dbhandle, $dbname, $version) = @_;
+
+    DBQueryFatal("UPDATE sitevariables SET ".
+		 "  defaultvalue='5' ".
+		 "WHERE name='watchdog/isalive/vnode'");
+
+    return 0;
+}
+1;
+
+# Local Variables:
+# mode:perl
+# End: