You need to shut your server down but before so you must notify your users to save data and log off before the server is shut down. Below I will show you how to do this is all versions of windows and a Linux server.
IT Solution
For XP Machines on your network..
We are going to use the Net Send command, for this we need to enable the “Messenger” service on your pc`s. Do this with a GPO and set the messenger service to automatic.The section you need to browse to is as below.
COMPUTER CONFIGURATION>WINDOWS SETTINGS>SECURITY SETTINGS>SYSTEM SERVICES,
Then set the service to start Automatic and run gpupdate /force. We can now use the net send command
To send a message to everything on the network use the command below.
net send * Replace this txt with your message
To send a message to a particular domain ( if you have sub domains this is useful) use the command below
net send /DOMAIN:MyDomainName Replace this txt with your message
If you just want to send a message to particular users as you are disconnecting there shares or doing work on their accounts then use the command below.
net send User1, User2, User3 Replace this txt with your message
Windows Vista ,Windows 7 and Windows 8
The net send commands do not work with these version of windows so we need to use the MSG command.
Drop to a command prompt and type MSG you will see the screen below.
So if you wanted to contact users on a server the syntax would be
msg /server:yourservername username "enter your message here"
Notify Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services of Server Shutdown.
Its much more simple on a terminal services server / remote desktop services server.
Simply RDP to the server then right click on the task bar and you will see this screen. Switch to the users tab.
Right click over the users and click Send Message. prompt will pop up asking for your message. If you want to message multiple users then simple hold down Ctrl when selecting the users.
Notify Users of A linux Server Shutdown
Nice and simple use the command below:
shutdown [-h or -r] time [shutdown message]
Where -h means your halting the system and -r means you will be rebooting the system , where time is enter the time in minutes.