DigitalOcean Droplet restart or reboot options demystified by the experts at Bobcares. 

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our DigitalOCean Managed Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team is ready to help customers with different types of DigitalOcean Droplet restart options.

All About DigitalOcean Droplet Restart

Rebooting a droplet is often done to fix any persisting issue with the service. Unfortunately, we cannot solve all problems by rebooting the droplet.

If the droplet runs slower than usual, our Support Techs recommend rebooting it. However, it does not require a reboot if it crashes for a minute, and then it seems to be running smoothly.

Interestingly, a droplet tends to run slow or even crash due to insufficient RAM. We would probably have to add more RAM to resolve the problems in such scenarios.

We have to be very careful when deciding to reboot the droplet. Although it might be the answer in some scenarios, it may worsen the issue in other situations. Let’s take a look at situations where rebooting the droplet can be helpful:

• Errors in the droplet have to be resolved.
• A compromised or hacked droplet
• The droplet has to reflect significant changes in the server.
• Linux distribution installation update and droplet update.

According to our Support Team, rebooting droplets regularly helps eliminate any issues or bugs that may build up over time. Moreover, rebooting also gives the droplet a chance to update the system with the latest patches for vulnerabilities. Here are a few more benefits of rebooting droplets:

• Reduces the risk of data corruption.
• Fixes bugs in the kernel.
• It protects against malware and other security issues.

How to restart the DigitalOcean Droplet

We can reboot or restart the Droplet using any one of the following ways:

• Preboot

  This option forces the droplet to power off faster during a restart in the future since it halts processes beforehand.
• Gracefully

  A graceful restart is done via the command line. It ensures the droplet is safely shut down before the reboot to prevent data corruption. Follow these steps to go ahead with a graceful reboot:

  1. First, open the Droplet and click Console.
  2. Then enter the following command:

     – sudo shutdown -r now

  3. Next, wait for a few minutes before opening the Droplet Console again. If the server is still rebooting, try again after a few more minutes.
• Forcefully

  The Forceful Droplet reboot option forces the Droplet to immediately drop and restart. Our Server Team recommends using this option only of the reboot via the command line as seen above does not work out.

  1. First, select the Power tab in the Droplet.
  2. Then, select the Power Cycle in the Power Cycle section.

     
  3. Next, wait for the confirmation message to appear. The Droplet will reboot in a few minutes after that.

Droplet Console for Emergency Restart

If you cannot access your Droplet via SSH but need to restart it, you can use the DigitalOcean Droplet Console. The console gives you direct access to the Droplet’s terminal and allows you to issue commands as if you were directly connected to the Droplet. We can access and use the droplet console as seen below:

1. In the DigitalOcean Control Panel, go to the Droplets section.
2. Select the Droplet that is unresponsive.
3. Go to the Access tab and click on Launch Console.
4. Use the console to issue restart commands, such as sudo reboot or sudo poweroff, as needed.

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Conclusion

To sum up, our skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated types of DigitalOcean Droplet restart options.