Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry Server Specialists

Exchange 2010 Server Shutdown Script

On This Page

  • Introduction - Why Use a Script to Shutdown Exchange?
  • Shutdown Script
  • What Does the Script Do?
  • Shutdown or Restart the Server After Stopping Exchange
  • Starting Exchange with a Script

Other Versions of Exchange

This article is available for other versions of Exchange:

Exchange 2003
Exchange 2007

Introduction - Why Use a Script to Shutdown Exchange?

If you are running Exchange 2010 on a domain controller, then you will find that it takes the machine a long time to shutdown. This is because the domain functionality stops quicker than Exchange, therefore Exchange is unable to write to the domain controller and has to be be "killed" by the operating system.

This continual "killing" of the Exchange services, instead of allowing them to shutdown gracefully is not good for the database and is one of the prime reasons for recommending that Exchange is not installed on a domain controller.

A better option is to stop the services before you begin to shutdown the server. This will also cause the server to shutdown more quickly because it isn't waiting for the services to timeout. This can significantly decrease the shutdown/reboot time of SBS Server.

Even if you have a dedicated Exchange server, if you are using a UPS, then you may also want to shutdown the Exchange services before the UPS shuts down the OS. In many cases the domain controller may shut down before Exchange, which will cause delays as Exchange needs to communicate with the the domain controller during the shutdown process. 

While you can stop the services yourself using the services administrative tool, instead use a batch script with a shortcut on the desktop. 
Due to the dependencies required for some services, you can shortcut the list by stopping one service with the /y command.

Shutdown Script

Below is a sample script. Simply copy and paste it in to a new notepad document and save it as "stop-exchange.cmd".

What does the script do?

net stop msexchangeadtopology /y

Stops the "Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service" which will stop the following services

Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search
Microsoft Exchange Transport
Microsoft Exchange Throttling
Microsoft Exchange Service Host
Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer
Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access
Microsoft Exchange Replication
Microsoft Exchange Protected Service Host
Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants
Microsoft Exchange File Distribution
Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync
Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update
Microsoft Exchange Address Book

It will also stop POP3, IMAP4 and Unified Messaging if those are enabled.

net stop msexchangefba /y

stops the "Microsoft Exchange Forms-Based Authentication" service which does not have any dependencies

net stop msftesql-exchange /y

stops the "Microsoft Search (Exchange)" service which does not have any dependencies

net stop msexchangeis /y

stops the "Microsoft Exchange Information Store" service which does not have any dependencies

net stop msexchangesa /y

stops the "Microsoft Exchange System Attendant" service which does not have any dependencies

net stop iisadmin /y

stops the IIS admin service, which does not have any dependencies.

net stop w3svc /y

stops the "World Wide Web Publishing" service, which may have any dependencies - on SBS this will also stop the Remote Desktop Gateway service, which could kick you out of the server if you are using the RWW to access the server.

If you are using a third party plug-in, then you may find that there is a dependency on that plug-in which can cause the script to fail. The /y at the end of each command should deal with it, but if you find that the third party service doesn't stop in time, adjust the script to include a delay. (Sleep is part of the Windows Resource Kit tools, if you don't have it installed on the server)

For example, this is a script used with an old version of McAfee Group Shield

Shutdown or Restart the Server After Stopping Exchange

If you are using these scripts to shutdown Exchange before a server is shutdown (for example by a UPS) or rebooted, then you may want to fully automate the process by scripting the shutdown/restart as well. This can be easily achieved by adding an extra line to the end of the script:

Restart the server

Shutdown the server

Starting Exchange with a Script

Finally, you might also want a script to start Exchange again. This can be useful if you apply an update which requires a restart of the Exchange services, but don't need to restart the server. However starting the services is a little more complex as the less number of the services are dependant on other services. Therefore more services have to be started manually. Simply copy and paste it in to a new notepad document and save it as "start-exchange.cmd".

Remember to add POP3 and IMAP services if you are using those.