I was running a preclear from the GUI which froze at 82% in the 2nd cycle. I ended this preclear and wanted to restart the server so I stopped the array and clicked power down, on the warning screen I clicked yes and got a blank screen and not the countdown. The server didn't powerdown this way. So I tried it in putty with powerdown. It hangs at The system is going down for system halt NOW! now for 10 minutes and the server still hasn't shutdown. How can I restart the server without facing a parity check on power up?

Press the power button -- just a momentary press (NOT the "hold it 5 seconds to force it down" process -- which will definitely shut down the system, but not with a clean powerdown).

 

If pressing the power button doesn't work, I suspect the system is simply hung and you'll have to use the "hold it 5 seconds to force it down" method ... which will, of course, start a parity check on the next boot [Although it MAY not -- depending on where in the shutdown process it hung ... if the dismounts had all completed it may have already set the flag that indicates a clean shutdown].