To restart your Arma Reforger server, press Restart in the LPV5 Console tab inside LoafHub at hub.loafhosts.com. A restart is the standard way to apply config.json or mod changes, clear memory, and reload a scenario, and it usually completes in under a minute. This guide covers manual restarts, scheduled restarts via the LPV5 Server Auto-Restarter, when a restart is required, and how Loafhosts handles crash recovery.
Manual Restart from the LPV5 Console
The LPV5 Console tab is the canonical place to start, stop, and restart a Reforger server. The Restart button stops the server, waits for the process to release its handles, and starts it back up while you watch the live log.
- Sign in to LoafHub at hub.loafhosts.com
- Open your Arma Reforger server in the LPV5 panel
- Open the Console tab
- Click Restart
- Watch the live log as the server stops and starts again
- Wait for the scenario load lines and the ready state
- Announce restarts in your community chat a few minutes in advance
- A clean Reforger restart usually finishes in under a minute on a small modlist
Schedule Restarts with the LPV5 Auto-Restarter
Reforger servers slowly accumulate memory and AI state over long sessions, so a daily restart during a quiet hour keeps performance consistent. The LPV5 Server Auto-Restarter handles this for you on a schedule and also covers automatic restart after a crash.
- Open the Auto-Restarter section in the LPV5 panel
- Add a schedule entry, for example 06:00 server time
- Save the schedule
- Confirm the next-run time displays correctly
- Optionally add a second daily window for a 24/7 community
- One restart per day at a low-traffic hour is enough for most communities
- If your server hits memory or tick-rate issues, add a second daily restart
- Arma Reforger workshop mods auto-update on startup, so a scheduled restart also pulls fresh mod versions
When a Restart Is Required
Most Reforger admin tasks need a restart to take effect because the server only reads config.json on boot. The short list of must-restart actions is worth memorising so you do not edit a setting and wonder why nothing changed.
- After any edit to config.json, including name, password, maxPlayers, scenarioId, or admins
- After any change to your modlist; the server downloads the diff on the next start
- After a Reforger update so server and client stay on the same build
- After a scenario swap so the new scenario boots cleanly
- Config changes do not take effect while the server is running; without a restart your edits are simply ignored
- If you suspect a memory or AI issue mid-session, a restart almost always clears it
Crash Recovery and the Auto-Restarter
The LPV5 Server Auto-Restarter watches the server process and starts it back up automatically if it crashes. This means an unattended crash at 3am is recovered before most of your players notice, instead of leaving the server offline until you wake up.
- Leave the Auto-Restarter enabled at all times; there is no downside to crash-recovery being on
- If the server crashes repeatedly in a short window, stop and investigate the log rather than relying on auto-recovery
- Auto-restart cannot fix a config.json error; a server that crashes on a JSON typo will keep crashing until you fix the file
- If a bad mod is causing a crash loop, remove it from the modlist before re-enabling auto-restart
- Investigate the console log first when a crash repeats; the most common causes are invalid JSON, a broken mod after a Workshop update, or memory exhaustion on a heavy modlist
Stop, Start, Restart: Picking the Right Action
All three actions live in the LPV5 Console tab and they look similar, but they have different uses. Stop is for cold maintenance, Start is for bringing a stopped server back up, and Restart is the everyday action for applying changes.
- Use Restart for config or mod changes; it is faster and cleaner than Stop then Start
- Use Stop before restoring a backup or doing heavy file manager work
- Use Start to bring the server back up after a Stop
- If a Restart hangs, Stop and Start manually to force a clean cycle
Verifying a Restart Worked
A restart is only successful when the boot log reaches the scenario-ready state with no errors. Always watch the first 30 seconds of console output so a silent failure does not leave you with an offline server you think is running.
- Watch the Console tab during the restart
- Confirm the boot log shows mod downloads complete cleanly
- Confirm the scenario load lines print
- Confirm the server reaches a ready state
- Optionally join in-game to confirm the connect path works end-to-end
- If the log shows a JSON parse error, fix config.json before another restart attempt; another restart will just hit the same error