diff --git a/scripts/lib/upgrade-zulip-stage-2 b/scripts/lib/upgrade-zulip-stage-2
index 7c09cc218f..b7105e452f 100755
--- a/scripts/lib/upgrade-zulip-stage-2
+++ b/scripts/lib/upgrade-zulip-stage-2
@@ -110,30 +110,18 @@ parser.add_argument(
 )
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
-# There are two reasons we might want to do a "minimal change" which
-# asserts puppet/database are unchanged: if we're setting up for a
-# post-upgrade manual restart (--skip-restart), or if we're only
-# restarting part of the system (--skip-tornado).
-minimal_change = args.skip_restart or args.skip_tornado
-if args.skip_restart and args.skip_tornado:
-    logging.warning("Ignored --skip-tornado; all upgrades with --skip-restart skip all restarts.")
-    args.skip_tornado = False
-if minimal_change:
-    if args.skip_restart:
-        flagname = "--skip-restart"
-    else:
-        flagname = "--skip-tornado"
+if args.skip_restart:
     if args.less_graceful:
-        logging.warning("Ignored --less-graceful; %s is always graceful.", flagname)
+        logging.warning("Ignored --less-graceful; --skip-restart is always graceful.")
         args.less_graceful = False
     if args.skip_migrations:
         logging.warning(
-            "Ignored --skip-migrations; all upgrades with %s assert no migrations.", flagname
+            "Ignored --skip-migrations; all upgrades with --skip-restart asserts no migrations."
         )
         args.skip_migrations = False
     if args.skip_puppet:
         logging.warning(
-            "Ignored --skip-puppet; all upgrades with %s assert no puppet changes.", flagname
+            "Ignored --skip-puppet; all upgrades with --skip-restart asserts no puppet changes."
         )
         args.skip_puppet = False
 
@@ -170,7 +158,7 @@ if os.path.exists("/var/lib/rabbitmq/.erlang.cookie"):
         cookie_size = len(cookie_fh.readline())
 else:
     logging.info("No RabbitMQ erlang cookie found, not auditing RabbitMQ security.")
-if (minimal_change or args.skip_puppet) and rabbitmq_dist_listen:
+if (args.skip_restart or args.skip_puppet) and rabbitmq_dist_listen:
     logging.error(
         "RabbitMQ is publicly-accessible on %s; this is a security vulnerability!",
         ", ".join(rabbitmq_dist_listen),
@@ -208,7 +196,7 @@ def fill_memcached_caches() -> None:
 def shutdown_server(fill_caches: bool = True) -> None:
     global IS_SERVER_UP
 
-    if minimal_change:
+    if args.skip_restart:
         logging.info("Upgrade would require shutting down Zulip -- aborting!")
         sys.exit(1)
 
@@ -229,7 +217,7 @@ if glob.glob("/usr/share/postgresql/*/extension/tsearch_extras.control"):
     )
     subprocess.check_call(["apt-get", "remove", "-y", "postgresql-*-tsearch-extras"])
 
-if not (minimal_change or args.skip_puppet):
+if not (args.skip_restart or args.skip_puppet):
     # We need to temporarily hold pgroonga, if installed -- upgrading
     # it without running the appropriate upgrade SQL can cause
     # PostgreSQL to crash
@@ -288,7 +276,7 @@ class_renames = {
 classes = re.split(r"\s*,\s*", get_config(config_file, "machine", "puppet_classes"))
 new_classes = [class_renames.get(c, c) for c in classes if c != "zulip::base"]
 if classes != new_classes:
-    if minimal_change:
+    if args.skip_restart:
         logging.error("Would need to adjust puppet classes -- aborting!")
         sys.exit(1)
     logging.info("Adjusting Puppet classes for renames...")
@@ -312,7 +300,7 @@ if os.path.exists(emoji_path):
         emoji_data = f.read()
     emoji_sha = hashlib.sha1(emoji_data).hexdigest()
     if emoji_sha == "47033121dc20b376e0f86f4916969872ad22a293":
-        if minimal_change:
+        if args.skip_restart:
             logging.error("Would need to delete images-google-64 -- aborting!")
             sys.exit(1)
         shutil.rmtree("/home/zulip/prod-static/generated/emoji/images-google-64")
@@ -384,15 +372,10 @@ elif not args.skip_migrations:
         if line_str.startswith("[ ]"):
             migrations_needed = True
 
-if minimal_change and migrations_needed:
+if args.skip_restart and migrations_needed:
     logging.error("Would need to apply migrations -- aborting!")
     sys.exit(1)
 
-# If we're skipping tornado restarts, we need to ensure we keep the
-# same cache prefix as we currently have.
-if args.skip_tornado:
-    shutil.copyfile("../current/var/remote_cache_prefix", "./var/remote_cache_prefix")
-
 # Install hooks before we check for puppet changes, so we skip an
 # unnecessary stop/start cycle if hook changes are the only ones.
 logging.info("Installing hooks")
@@ -413,7 +396,7 @@ if not args.skip_puppet and IS_SERVER_UP:
         check=False,
     )
     if try_puppet.returncode == 0:
-        if minimal_change:
+        if args.skip_restart:
             logging.info("Verified no Puppet changes are necessary.")
         else:
             logging.info("No puppet changes found, skipping!")
@@ -422,7 +405,7 @@ if not args.skip_puppet and IS_SERVER_UP:
     elif try_puppet.returncode == 2:
         logging.error("Puppet error -- aborting!")
         sys.exit(1)
-    elif minimal_change:
+    elif args.skip_restart:
         logging.error("Would need to apply puppet changes -- aborting!")
         sys.exit(1)
 
@@ -516,8 +499,6 @@ else:
     if not HAS_FILLED_CACHES:
         start_args.append("--fill-cache")
     if IS_SERVER_UP:
-        if args.skip_tornado:
-            start_args.append("--skip-tornado")
         if args.less_graceful:
             start_args.append("--less-graceful")
         subprocess.check_call(["./scripts/restart-server", *start_args], preexec_fn=su_to_zulip)
diff --git a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
index ce031d1dad..3f392beb49 100755
--- a/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
+++ b/scripts/lib/zulip_tools.py
@@ -688,11 +688,6 @@ def start_arg_parser(action: str, add_help: bool = False) -> argparse.ArgumentPa
             action="store_true",
             help="Restart with more concern for expediency than minimizing availability interruption",
         )
-        parser.add_argument(
-            "--skip-tornado",
-            action="store_true",
-            help="Do not restart Tornado processes",
-        )
     return parser
 
 
diff --git a/scripts/restart-server b/scripts/restart-server
index c7664aa027..2c1bfe7d46 100755
--- a/scripts/restart-server
+++ b/scripts/restart-server
@@ -162,15 +162,14 @@ if action == "restart" and len(workers) > 0:
 
 if has_application_server():
     # Next, we restart the Tornado processes sequentially, in order to
-    # minimize downtime of the tornado service caused by too many Python
-    # processes restarting at the same time, resulting in each receiving
-    # insufficient priority.  This is important, because Tornado is the
-    # main source of user-visible downtime when we restart a Zulip server.
-    # We do this before restarting Django, in case there are new event
-    # types which it will need to know how to deal with.
-    if action == "restart" and args.skip_tornado:
-        logging.info("Skipping restart of Tornado")
-    elif len(tornado_ports) > 1:
+    # minimize downtime of the tornado service caused by too many
+    # Python processes restarting at the same time, resulting in each
+    # receiving insufficient priority.  This is important, because
+    # Tornado being unavailable for too long is the main source of
+    # user-visible downtime when we restart a Zulip server.  We do
+    # this before restarting Django, in case there are new event types
+    # which it will need to know how to deal with.
+    if len(tornado_ports) > 1:
         for p in tornado_ports:
             # Restart Tornado processes individually for a better rate of
             # restarts.  This also avoids behavior with restarting a whole