Restarting your VPS

[Tony]

You can restart your VPS by doing the following:

1) Log into the VZPP: https://arandomurlorip.tld:4643
N.B., you will require your root password to do this. Depending on how your VPS has been set up, the username will be 'admin' (without quotation marks)

2) Once logged in, you will be presented with a control panel, in the left hand menu of this panel at the very top, you will see Start/Stop VPS, click this.

3) A new panel will appear on the right giving you the option to Reboot, Stop or Fast Stop, we recommend that you don't fast stop your VPS as this can result in file corruption.

You can also reboot/stop your VPS from the shell by issuing 'shutdown -r now' to restart or 'shutdown -h now'. There is also the option to 'reboot' or 'halt', but these are not secure, so therefore not recommended.

[americantechie]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. As a newcomer to server administration the first thought that went through my mind when I saw this option was "what reason would I need to reboot the server?" This is one of those situations when you get concerned about seeing a "big red emergency button" with no other information and start getting nervous because you are not sure what type of emergency the button may be referring to. A general answer to this question might be a good addition to this thread. Thanks in advance.

[haligi]

same question here. no response?

[Tony]

Sorry I haven't replied to this thread.

Generally, the rule of thumb is that Linux/Unix servers don't need to be restarted. However, in some extreme cases, it is required.

One such case would be where a process has run away and you're unable to access a shell or your command seg faults due to lack of memory. You can try to kill processes from the VZPP (you wouldn't have this option on a standalone server) or you can hard-reboot.

In the geek world, a reboot can also be synonymous for 'I've run out of ideas and need 3 mins contemplation time while it reboots so I don't look like I'm not working'.

Another reason may be that you can't access your server or apache was down - however, in this case we highly recommend contacting support instead of hitting the big red button.

Aside from that, I can't really think of that many reasons why. However, it is a well often asked question.
I'm pretty sure that the other staff will add to this list in the future.

[Tony]

Charles just came up with a good one --

If we announce a kernel upgrade reboot, it may be a good idea to do a test reboot prior to that time to make sure that everything comes back up again - if it doesn't, you're around at the time and we can help you to fix it.

[Chris]

Smart . . .
never thought about that, but that's a great idea!