The following is taken from an Autonomy support article entitled “Recommended boot order for the NearPoint server and SQL server.”

Boot order is important. If the servers are re-booted out of order, NearPoint may experience a connection loss to the SQL databases or a Peer may be inadvertently promoted to Master.

Boot order for non-Grid environment (i.e. one NearPoint server)

1. Power Down the NearPoint server
2. Power Down the SQL server
3. Start the SQL server
4. (Once SQL is completely up) Start the NearPoint server

Boot order for Grid environment (i.e. more than one NearPoint server)

1. Power Down the NearPoint Master server
2. Power Down the NearPoint Peer servers
3. Power Down the SQL server
4. Start the SQL server
5. (Once SQL is completely up) Start the NearPoint Peer servers
6. Start the NearPoint Master server

It is somewhat counter-intuitive that the peer nodes in a grid environment should be powered on before the master node.