To Create or Cancel a Shutdown or Lockout

ERROR: Variable (ShutdownService) is undefined. Users will receive three messages before a shutdown happens. You can define when the messages are displayed so users have time to save their work. For example, the first message can be scheduled to be displayed 1 hour beforehand, the second message 30 minutes beforehand and the final message 5 minutes beforehand. Messages are not sent for lockouts because they only affect users who are already logged in to Opera.

Shutdowns or lockouts are likely to be scheduled so that essential maintenance, like upgrading the Opera 3 programs or running the Backup commands, can be completed by a system administrator. All selected Opera 3 users are affected by the shutdown or lockout event. However, an administrator can use the ADMIN user to log in to Opera 3 so that a maintenance task can be completed but all affected users will be locked out for a defined amount of time. The ADMIN user will be locked out of Opera 3 for between one and two minutes after the shutdown has occurred.

You can schedule shutdowns or lockouts for either users or user groups, or for a company or more than one company. If companies are selected, all users who have access to the companies will be locked out for a prescribed amount of time.

Important: Any unsaved entries that users are working on will be lost when Opera 3 is shut down. Also, if a lengthy process like a Period End command is being run when a shutdown happens, your data may be damaged. You must allow sufficient time for lengthy processes to complete and for users to save their work before the shutdown is scheduled to happen. You can use the Monitor Users form to check which users are still logged in and disable the shutdown if necessary.

If anyone is using a Pegasus product that links to Opera 3, those products will not be shut down. It is advisable to close these products individually before the scheduled shutdown.

Example of a User Group Shutdown

Example of a Company Shutdown

  1. Open the System folder and click Scheduling or click the Administration tab on the Ribbon Bar and then click Scheduling.

  2. Click Shutdown.

  3. Select the icon on the toolbar or press CTRL+N.

  4. Update the boxes on the form. Then click the Preview button to see how the message will look on the users' desktops.

  5. Select the icon on the toolbar or press CTRL+S.

  6. On the Action menu, either click Users/Groups or click Companies. Tick the boxes adjacent to the users, user groups or companies, or choose Select All from the Action menu.

    Once you have selected either users or groups the other menu item is disabled. To enable both menu items, select all users/user groups or companies in the available option.

  7. Click OK to close the Distribution or Companies form. Then click OK and click Close to close the Shutdown form. The shutdown will happen at the time and on the day/s specified.



1. To cancel a shutdown untick the Active box on the form. This cancels the shutdown and also prevents any pending messages for the shutdown from being sent. However any messages that have already been sent are not affected - to inform people that the shutdown was cancelled, send a message from the Messaging form.

2. To see a calendar view of the days when the shutdown or lockout is scheduled for, select Calendar from the Action menu.