Properly Shutting Down Your Server

1. To ensure your servers are turned off and protected from power surge, you should follow these steps:
2. Get all users to shutdown their computers. This closes any open files and ensures you can cleanly shutdown the servers without hurting anything.
3. Go to the console of the server and login as Administrator
4. Once logged in, click Start, and choose Shut Down.
5. It will ask you to provide a reason for the shutdown. You can type in the box anything you wish, i.e. “shutting down for hurricane Irene”
6. Click OK and the server will begin shutting off. For some servers, this can take up to 10 minutes to stop all critical services and power down. It is important that you allow the server this time to shut down cleanly.
7. Once the screen goes black the server has shut off completely. At this time, if your server is not plugged into a Surge Protector or UPS, it is recommended that you disconnect the power line to prevent any electrical surges from damaging the hardware.
8. It would also be a good idea to unplug desktop machines if they are not in surge protectors as well.

Other things to consider when shutting down your machines:

• If you have a mail server, inbound mail will bounce if your server is not on to accept it. If you have Spam Filtering services through NetTek, please let us know you will be shutting down the server and we will place your mail on hold so it does not bounce during the outage.
• Other equipment such as modems, routers and switches should be turned off and unplugged if not protected by surge devices.
• If equipment is in areas that could likely receive water damage, it should be raised off the ground to prevent permanent damage to the hardware. A chair or table may suffice as high enough elevation to help.

As always, NetTek is available to help with any of these items. If you would like assistance please call as soon as you can so we can make arrangements to take care of this for you.

Best of Luck and Be Safe!

Jacob Smith