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Shutting Down and Restarting a Cloud Server

  • Article ID: 144
  • Last updated on May 15, 2013
  • Authored by: Rackspace Support
  • (6 Comments)

NOTE: This article is written for our First-Generation Cloud Control Panel. You can access this interface from the Next-Generation Cloud Control Panel by clicking your username in the upper-right of the control panel and selecting "First-Generation Control Panel".

Pre-reqs

  • SSH client to login into the Cloud Server
  • sudo account login to the Cloud Server
  • Administrative access to the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel

Procedure

Shutdown server

  • Log in as a sudo-enabled user via SSH and enter the following command
# sudo shutdown -h now
  • This will shutdown the server

NOTE: Shutting down a server will NOT stop billing, since the virtual harddrives are persistent, server resources are always in use whether the servers is powered on or not.

 

Starting Up

  • Login to the Services Control Panel
  • Navigate to Hosting->Cloud Servers
  • Click on the hyperlink for your server
StartCldServer.JPG
  • Under "Actions For This Server" section, click on Rescue and wait for it to enter Rescue Mode, then under "Cloud Server Details" section, click on Exit Rescue Mode hyperlink
rescue1.jpg
rescue2a.jpg
  • Server will reboot and user will have normal access again

 

Additional Resources

  • Open source ssh client like putty can be downloaded here

-- RKN - 12/16/2009



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6 Comments

It would help if you could note whether or not this process also applies to Windows servers. Also, is there any reason not to start a server if an image creation is in progress?
By Wilson on Jul. 30, 2012

This process does apply to Linux servers - we'll need to get it updated to reflect that. There are instructions for putting a Windows Cloud Server into rescue mode here:

http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/content/rackspace-cloud-essentials-3-rescue-mode-windows-cloud-servers

On the other question, if you mean the snapshot process, you can start a server while an image is being created from it. However, if you have a database on that server you might get a more reliable backup by leaving the server down until the snapshot process completes. Otherwise you may end up with an unreliable database on the image.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

There is no "Exit Rescue Mode" link so if you put your server into rescue mode, there appears to be no way to get it out. I followed these instructions and now I've lost Console and Putty access to my server.
By Steve Strandberg on Jul. 30, 2012

The article should still be accurate, so there may be a glitch with your server. Does its status show as "Rescue mode" when you view its server overview? Have you refreshed the view to make sure it's updated?

I'd suggest contacting support directly - either through a ticket opened in the control panel (so a tech can more easily associate the query with your account) or by contacting them through chat or email. Unfortunately these comments are primarily monitored by the folks maintaining the documentation, so we don't have backend access to accounts.
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Same problem here. and it is August 29.. still no fix?
By Cheng on Aug. 29, 2012

It's not an issue I believe has been reported often, and definitely sounds like something you should contact support about. Open a support ticket through the control panel or give them a call so they can take a look at the status of your server and try to resolve it (and hopefully identify what caused the issue so our devs can keep it from happening again).
By jered.heeschen on Aug. 31, 2012

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