What is Quiesce?

The term quiesce is used to represent multiple pausing operations within computer software engineering. It is the unilateral software term used to describe the pausing of a system, program, thread, or database within computer science. It enables a system to be placed into a temporary inactive state. While in this state it is only accessible by the system administrator.

All computer systems require periodic maintenance. Before any maintenance can occur on a shared computer environment, all the connected users of the application must be disconnected from the system. The term quiesce is used to describe the procedure of locking all users out of a system. This quiets the environment and makes it ready for maintenance.

Computer applications are used by millions of individuals throughout the world. When a computer application is designed to support multiple simultaneous users, the administration of the system becomes more difficult. The quiesce operation can be a tool to trigger a notification to multiple users throughout the environment.

A computer backup is the process where all computer files within a system are copied to an external media device. This backup can only occur after a quiesce has been performed on the operating system. This will enable the backup of system files and ensure that know files are locked by processes or users.

Many software applications run background processes that are designed to execute business rules without user intervention. These processes must be paused or stopped before any maintenance can begin. The quiesce command is responsible for disabling any background process of a software application.

There are multiple methods of executing a shutdown command within system administration. Each operating system has a specific syntax for the quieting of a system. This quiesce operation is typically required before a system is shutdown. This graceful shutdown operation allows sufficient time for the users to save their work before the lock out procedure begins.

A database administrator is the manager of the maintenance of a computer database. This database stores the data that is required for software applications. The database administrators executes the quiesce operation,which puts the database into maintenance mode.

After a database is placed into a quite mode it can only be accessed by the system administrator. All other users of the system will receive error messages if they attempt to connect to the database. Once a database is in a quiet mode, only an unquiesce operation will put the database back online.