I am using Windows version 7 or 10 on my desktop. How can I use putty client to restart Linux server? What is the procedure to restart Linux server using putty from Windows 7 or 10 desktop?

Introduction: You need to use putty on Windows version 7 or 10. It is a graphical SSH, Telnet and Rlogin client for X. It is a direct port of the Windows SSH client of the same name. Putty is a free and open source SSH client for Windows and Unix-like system. You can download and install putty from this page if not installed on your system. Once installed you need to login to the remote Linux server using this software. Each Linux server has OpenSSH server installed. OpenSSH server allows you to log in and manager server using a text-based user interface. This page shows how to restart Linux server using putty ssh client on a Windows family of operating systems.

Step 1. Download putty

Visit this url and grab the putty package.

Step 2. Install putty

Just double click on the downloaded file “putty-64bit-0.70-installer.msi” and install on your system.

Step 3. Connect to the remote Linux server using putty

Open the putty application from Start menu or desktop shortcut and you will see an window as follows:

Step 4. Restart Linux server using putty ssh client

You must have the following information in order to reboot the Linux box:

1. Linux server IP address or FQDN: For example, 192.168.2.18 or 202.54.1.1 or server1.cyberciti.biz
2. Linux server username: For example: vivek
3. sudo command privileges or root account password that can be used with the su command

You need to type your server IP address, port and select ssh as connection method as follows:

If you are connecting first time, you should see an alert window as follows:

Just click the “Yes” button and you will get server login session as follows:

The sudo command means “superuser do.” It prompts you for your password and confirms your request to execute a command. You must enter your username and password. Once logged in type any one of the following command to reboot the Linux server:
sudo reboot
OR
sudo shutdown -r 0
When prompted you must type your password, and the Linux server will reboot. It will take 2-5 minutes for the server to come back online. You can verify that with the ping command to log in using putty again:
ping 192.168.2.18

A note about su command

The su command stands for “switch user”, and allows you to become root user. If sudo command is not available or installed or enabled on your Linux server. Use the su command as follows to become the root user (first, log in using putty and then type):
su -
When prompted for a password, you must type root user password. Once you become a root, type the following command to reboot the Linux server:
reboot

I restart Linux server using putty ssh client. It will take some time to boot the server again. So have some patience.

Conclusion

And there you have it, and you just rebooted the Linux server using putty client for Windows family of operating systems.