Shuts down the specified database if you specify a databaseName. (Reconnecting to the database reboots the database.)

Shuts down the entire system if and only if you do not specify a databaseName

When you are shutting down a single database, it lets perform a final checkpoint on the database.

When you are shutting down a system, it lets perform a final checkpoint on all system databases, deregister the JDBC driver, and shut down within the JVM before the JVM exits. A successful shutdown always results in an SQLException indicating that has shut down and that there is no connection. Once is shut down, you can restart it by reloading the driver. For details on restarting , see "Shutting Down the System" in Chapter 1 of the .

Checkpointing means writing all data and transaction information to disk so that no recovery needs to be performed at the next connection.

Used to shut down the entire system only when it is embedded in an application. Any request to the DriverManager with a shutdown=true attribute raises an exception.