Before you start
- Raff Guardian on the server, in Raff manages everything or Ask me before changes. On Watch only the server restarts the standard way.
- Permission to power the server (
vm.power). - The server is running.
Steps
1
Open the power menu
Open the server under Virtual Machines and click the power state button at the top right (it shows Running). While Raff Guardian can act, Restart reads “Raff Guardian warns signed-in users, then restarts Windows” and Shut down reads “Raff Guardian shuts Windows down cleanly · still billed while off”.
2
Choose Restart or Shut down
The dialog says what happens, for example: “Raff Guardian tells people signed in to Windows, then restarts the server in 1 minute. You can cancel until then.”Click Show details to change:
- Restart in or Shut down in: 1, 5 or 10 minutes.
- Reason (optional): shown to people signed in to Windows and in Activity. Letters A to Z, digits and
. , : ; ( ) ' / -only, up to 120 characters.
3
Confirm
Click Restart or Shut down. The power state button shows the countdown, for example “Restarting in 0:42”.
Cancel during the countdown
Open the power menu and click Cancel restart (or Cancel shut down). “Your server keeps running.” While Raff Guardian stops it, the button shows Stopping….When Windows does not respond
Windows may hold a restart or shut down while it installs updates; Raff Guardian waits and says so in Activity. If Windows still does not respond, Raff Guardian offers a forced option instead of acting alone:
A shut down that Windows has not carried out within 10 minutes leads to the force off offer. Whether Raff Guardian offers it at all follows the Force off when Windows does not shut down and Hard restart when Windows does not restart settings, which are Ask me or Off only.
When the standard way is used
The dialog says when Raff Guardian cannot take the press and the server restarts or shuts down the standard way, with the reason, for example:- Raff Guardian is set to Watch only.
- Raff Guardian has not heard from your server in the last 2 minutes.
- Restart the server is switched off in the server’s Raff Guardian settings.
- The server runs an older Raff Guardian that cannot do this yet.
Verify
The power state button returns to Running (or shows the server off), and Activity has the restart or shut down with who asked for it and, for a restart, how long the server took to come back.Next steps
See what it did (activity log)
Find the restart in Activity.
Manage power
Power on, stop and hard restart any server.