Better not shut down your dedicated server. Once it is off, you cannot start it again yourself: a technician in the data center has to switch it on, which can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours.

Why that is

A vServer is a virtual machine you start with one click in the control panel. A dedicated server is real hardware, and not every mainboard can be powered on remotely. The rescue system does not help either, because it needs a server that is running.

Reboot instead of shutting down

For updates or a new kernel, a reboot is enough. On Linux:

reboot

On Windows, choose ?Restart? in the Start menu or run this in the command prompt:

shutdown /r /t 0

Shut it down by accident?

  1. Open a ticket with the server name and set the priority to ?high?.
  2. We ask a technician in the data center to switch the server back on.
  3. Once it is running, we reply in the ticket.

Our support works on a best-effort basis. We do not promise to reply instantly at night, but it does happen. A high-priority ticket triggers an extra notification and is more likely to catch our attention.

Common pitfalls

  • Wrong command: poweroff, halt or shutdown -h now switch the server off. Check scripts and cron jobs for these commands too.
  • Windows Start menu: ?Shut down? instead of ?Restart? is one click away. For updates that need a restart, choose ?Update and restart?.
  • High priority: only for real emergencies like this one, not for general questions.