This article tells how to start and stop Mac OS X Server AFP services, and how to send a custom notification message to users.

You can start and stop the AFP server from the Web-based administration feature. If you use Web admin to stop the AFP server, you can specify a period of time for the server to wait before shutting down. You can also enter a custom message that the clients see. Consult the documentation that came with Mac OS X Server for more information on how to use the Web administration feature.

If you stop the AFP server from within the Macintosh Manager admin application (in the Server tab), the connected users receive a generic AppleShare message that the server has gone down.