Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Visual Studio 2015 > Deployment > Deploying to Enterprise Server > Enterprise Server configuration and administration > Configuring and Administering Enterprise Server Instances > Connecting to a Server Instance > Using Start and Stop Scripts

Using Start and Stop Scripts

Restriction: This topic applies only when the Enterprise Server feature is enabled.

You can supply start and stop scripts to take additional actions before or after starting or stopping an enterprise server. You must include the casstart command in your start script, and the casstop command in your stop script. If you omit them the server will not actually be started or stopped.

The Directory Server sets some environment variables in the scripts' environment, which you can use in your scripts:

`ES_HOME`	Server work directory (location of log files); this comes from the System Directory field on the Add Server or Edit Server > Properties > General page.
`ES_SERVER`	Server name (note that Enterprise Server will use this as the server name if no `-r` switch is specified on casstart or casstop).
`MFDS_PORT`	The port on which the Directory Server listens (usually 86).

For example, the start script could be used to set environment variables for the server, as follows;

set MY_VARIABLE=value
rem start the enterprise server
echo Enterprise Server %ES_SERVER% is starting
casstart

where value is the value of the environment variable.

If your stop script contains commands that should only be executed after the server has stopped completely, it should pause after executing casstop until thecascd process for that server has exited. This is because the casstop command returns before the server has actually finished shutting down. You would need third-party tools to do this on Windows.

Then you could back up the log files or perform other tasks that should only be started after the server finishes shutting down.

When you click the server's Start or Stop button, the commands that you specify are used to generate a Windows batch file, which is then executed.

You can also create an "On server not responding" script. This script will be executed when all of the running communications processes for a server have entered the "Not Responding" state. That might indicate that the server is hung or has crashed, or it might result from network connectivity problems between the Directory Server and the enterprise server (if they run on different systems). You can use this script to notify a system administrator of the problem.

You specify start, stop and "On server not responding" scripts on the Edit Server > Properties > Advanced page.