Hi everyone.
It maybe a stupid question, but I want to know the key reason of why RouterOS needs to shutdown by software first while other routers not, even routers with OPENWRT or other powerful firmware, we just unplug the power if we what to switch them off… So what made RouterOS different at this point?
Thanks~
It’s just an information - it’s nothing to worry about. You can unplug mikrotik router like any other and nothing bad will happen.
It maybe a stupid question, but I want to know the key reason of why RouterOS needs to shutdown by software first while other routers not, even routers with OPENWRT or other powerful firmware, we just unplug the power if we what to switch them off…
Yeah, sure… “nothing” happens apart from needing a reset when things go awry (usually if you poweroff/poweron too many times).
It doesn’t matter the OS, OpenWRT and all its derivatives (DD-WRT, tomato, gargoyle, you name it…) or RouterOS, if you unplug power too many times you will end with NAND corruption sooner or later, probabilities rising exponentially depending on NAND activity.
You can unplug a router without problems, if you do it every now and then. Do it several times each day for some months and no matter if routeros or any other OpenWRT, will fail.
I start to wonder if that is some troll question. Seen it a few times recently.
So I have some routers on networks with auto power-cycling if something is not working. And in the event that some cable goes bad the entire everything powercycles every 10-15min until problem is fixed. Sometimes there were occasion where a mikrotik router was not properly shutdown every 10min for lets say 12 hours. And guess what .. no problems.
I start to wonder if that is some troll question. Seen it a few times recently.
I think it comes from the fact that Mikrotik is the only SOHO router where you’re welcomed with scary warning everytime you unplug it. It creates conviction that something bad happened.
Some network equipment can behave strange when unplugged, eg. our Cisco switch often loses it’s configuration.
I think that the message you get after a power failure is very useful. I know that the router rebooted because there was some power outage. It may not be useful for home users, but for managing remote routers is very good. And the typical home user does not go all the time to read their router’s logs.
I have never seen a MikroTik router that has had problems because of improper shutdown. I personally never have used this command.
BUT there is one reason to use it. The config is being saved when you run this command. If you recently made changes to config, and quickly unplug power, you might loose the new settings.
Thank you very much everyone!
Had an config-reset on 951G an year ago after power loss, and a “bricked” (I had to use NetInstall to revive it) mAP 2n after many losses in a couple of seconds (bad quality of power-jack used to power). After this all I’m trying to use a shutdown command every time I can. 
ROS is Linux. Linux is an operating system.
Is “powering-off” standard method for closing OS ? Shutdown is much, much better.
I know that ROS mostly runs from memory so “power-off” is not so destructive but sooner or later it could be a disaster.
Thank you. In fact I never unplug the power without proper shutdown if possible, and I know most router runs a embedded OS.
But why other router don’t need this software shutdown method? (pukkita’s reply says all router will suffer damage, so why don’t they put in a shutdown function?)