Restarting Metasploit Services
There may be times when you need to restart the Metasploit services, such as after installation. Metasploit includes scripts that can be used to stop and restart all Metasploit related services.
Windows
On Windows you can stop, start or restart the following services:
- Metasploit Pro Service
- Metasploit Thin Service
- Metasploit Worker
- metasploitPostgreSQL
There are two ways to manage running services. One way is to start and stop services from the Start Menu. The Start Menu does not allow you to control which services are being stopped, started or restarted. The Start Menu stops and starts all services.
- Choose Start > Programs > Metasploit > Stop Services. If the system prompts you to allow the program to make changes to the computer, click Yes.
- Choose Start > Programs > Metasploit > Start Services. Metasploit can take up to ten minutes to restart.

The second way is to manage them from the “Services” app. In the Start Menu, choose the Search Icon, then type “Services”. Open the Services app that displays in your search results.

Once in “Services” scroll down until you find Metasploit. You can stop, pause or restart each service individually from this view.

Restart Time
Wait a few minutes before accessing the web interface.
Linux
On Linux, you can start, stop, restart, or get the status of the following services:
- postgresql
- prosvc
- metasploit
- worker
In the terminal, type /opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh
. You might need to use sudo
before running the script. This will bring up the following options.
1msadmin@ubuntu:~$ sudo '/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh'2usage: /opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh help3/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh (start|stop|restart|status)4/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh (start|stop|restart|status) postgresql5/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh (start|stop|restart|status) prosvc6/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh (start|stop|restart|status) metasploit7/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh (start|stop|restart|status) worker89help - this screen10start - start the service(s)11stop - stop the service(s)12restart - restart or start the service(s)13status - show the status of the service(s)
To start Metasploit:
/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh start
To start a specific service:
/opt/metasploit/ctlscript.sh start worker
Restart Time
Wait a few minutes before accessing the web interface.