Starting and stopping services are common actions you'll need to perform when administering ArcGIS Server. For example, you may need to stop a service to change some of its properties and start it again for the changes to take effect.
Starting a service
Starting a service makes it available for client access. When you start a service, the server instantiates the minimum number of instances you specified. As clients request the service, the server returns an available instance. If none are currently available, the server instantiates more instances to meet demand until the maximum number of instances is reached. At this point, any new clients that make a request for the service are placed in a queue for the next available instance.
Stopping a service
When you stop a service, the server immediately removes all instances of that service from the server. This frees up any machine resources that were dedicated to the service. Clients that were using the service may fail to work properly because the service is no longer available.
Where are the commands for starting and stopping services?
The commands for starting and stopping services can be found in ArcGIS Server Manager and ArcGIS Desktop. To access these commands, follow the steps below:
ArcGIS Server Manager
- Open ArcGIS Server Manager and log in. If you need help with this step, see Logging in to Manager.
- Click Services > Manage Services. The Manage Services module appears and reveals the Start
and Stop 
buttons. If the Stop button is grayed out, it means the service is currently stopped. Conversely, if the Start button is grayed out, it means the service has already been started and is currently running. - Click one of these commands. It is applied only to the service you selected in the module.
ArcGIS Desktop
- In the Catalog tree, expand the GIS Servers node.
- Double-click Add ArcGIS Server and click Administer GIS server to establish an administrative connection to the server. If you already have this connection set up, you can skip this step. For instructions on how to connect, see Making an administrative connection to ArcGIS Server in ArcGIS Desktop.
- Within your connection to ArcGIS Server, right-click your service to reveal a menu for starting and stopping the service. Alternatively, you can display the ArcGIS Server Tools toolbar that contains these same operations.