There are multiple ways to restart a remote linux system. A IPMI restart, a Power Strip or a Command Restart.
What is the best method to restart a Linux system?
The best method to restart a linux system is to graceful command restart. This will always make sure your all the services are closed before a restart. It will unmount the system and process a shutdown. If a system is not cleanly unmounted, this can cause data loss or some serious injuries to the drive. An uncleanly unmounted system can also take extra time to reboot due to file system integrity check and file system quota check. A cleanly unmounted system would skip the both check and restarts fast. It is hence recommended not to use a forceful Linux restart which doesn’t unmount the system cleanly.
You should always avoid a IPMI restart or Power Strip or a reboot command with force flag as much as possible:
$ reboot -f (should be avoided)
To gracefully restart a linux system, you can use any of the following command:
$ shutdown -r +2
$ shutdown -r now
$ reboot
All will gracefully restart your system. A reboot command with the -f is not recommended.