I usually prefer the 'reset' option (such as in IPMI). After all, this is the as-designed way to politely ask all devices to re-initialize. Yes, power-cycling

I usually prefer the 'reset' option (such as in IPMI). After all, this is the as-designed way to politely ask all devices to re-initialize. Yes, power-cycling is more unambiguous, but afaikt, the example here is purely that power cycling really needs a noticable off-period so that all devices can fully come down. Otherwise, there's no real standard on what should happen - this or that component might stay up or retain state. The other reason I like 'reset' is that lots of devices (fans, disks, probably all power systems - definitely including PSUs) have lifetime limits in power cycles. Mostly this is minor, unless you do something like reboot cluster nodes after a job (concievably a paranoid security requirement), or some automation gets in a loop and continually zaps a server.