--- title: Starting and stopping the server description: When the PingDataMetrics server starts for the very first time, it downloads new samples from the monitored servers and adds data to the database. Until it has finished this first data collection, the server cannot answer metric queries to the database. component: pingdirectory version: 9.3 page_id: pingdirectory:pingdatametrics_server_administration_guide:pd_met_start_stop_server canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingdirectory/9.3/pingdatametrics_server_administration_guide/pd_met_start_stop_server.html revdate: September 13, 2023 --- # Starting and stopping the server When the PingDataMetrics server starts for the very first time, it downloads new samples from the monitored servers and adds data to the database. Until it has finished this first data collection, the server cannot answer metric queries to the database. The PingDataMetrics server processes samples from the oldest to the newest, so queries on more recent data might require more startup time. If the monitored servers have been collecting samples for several days, there might be a significant backlog of data to collect. To determine if the server is ready to respond to metric queries, run the `status` tool. If the `Sample Import Backlog` property is zero (0), the server is ready. | | | | - | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | The PingDataMetrics server needs to be started and stopped by the user who installed it. If the PingDataMetrics server is started or stopped by a different user, the following error is listed in the `postgres.log` file when Postgres starts.``` FATAL: role "" does not exist ``` |