diff --git a/docs/production/export-and-import.md b/docs/production/export-and-import.md
index 38c6e565b6..08386be4cf 100644
--- a/docs/production/export-and-import.md
+++ b/docs/production/export-and-import.md
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ For best results, you'll want to shut down access to the organization
 before exporting; so that nobody can send new messages (etc.)  while
 you're exporting data.  There are two ways to do this:
 
-1. `supervisorctl stop all`, which stops the whole server.  This is
+1. `./scripts/stop-server`, which stops the whole server.  This is
 preferred if you're not hosting multiple organizations, because it has
 no side effects other than disabling the Zulip server for the
 duration.
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ following commands:
 
 ```
 cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
-# supervisorctl stop all                  # Stops the Zulip server
+# ./scripts/stop-server
 # export DEACTIVATE_FLAG="--deactivate"   # Deactivates the organization
 ./manage.py export -r '' $DEACTIVATE_FLAG # Exports the data
 ```
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ archive of all the organization's uploaded files.
       several months of development ahead of the latest release.
 
     * Note that if your server has limited free RAM, you'll want to
-      shut down the Zulip server with `supervisorctl stop all` while
+      shut down the Zulip server with `./scripts/stop-server` while
       you run the import, since our minimal system requirements do not
       budget extra RAM for running the data import tool.
 
diff --git a/docs/production/troubleshooting.md b/docs/production/troubleshooting.md
index b2d25e8e05..21733d9d93 100644
--- a/docs/production/troubleshooting.md
+++ b/docs/production/troubleshooting.md
@@ -87,6 +87,9 @@ Similarly, you can stop Zulip using:
 supervisorctl stop all
 ```
 
+If you're looking to shut down the server, it is often better to run
+`./scripts/stop-server`.
+
 ## Troubleshooting services
 
 The Zulip application uses several major open source services to store
diff --git a/docs/production/upgrade-or-modify.md b/docs/production/upgrade-or-modify.md
index b2d1730ad1..04acfbbf36 100644
--- a/docs/production/upgrade-or-modify.md
+++ b/docs/production/upgrade-or-modify.md
@@ -415,7 +415,6 @@ To upgrade the version of PostgreSQL on the Zulip server:
 2. Stop the server and take a backup:
 
     ```
-    sudo -i # Or otherwise get a root shell
     supervisorctl stop all
     /home/zulip/deployments/current/manage.py backup --output=/home/zulip/postgresql-upgrade.backup.tar.gz
     ```
diff --git a/scripts/setup/postgresql-init-db b/scripts/setup/postgresql-init-db
index 5a06229c1a..230c077fbe 100755
--- a/scripts/setup/postgresql-init-db
+++ b/scripts/setup/postgresql-init-db
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ fi
 
 # Shut down all services to ensure a quiescent state.
 if [ -e "/var/run/supervisor.sock" ]; then
-    supervisorctl stop all
+    su zulip -c "$(dirname "$(dirname "$0")")/stop-server"
 fi
 
 # Drop any open connections to any old database.
diff --git a/scripts/stop-server b/scripts/stop-server
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..accc150f06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/stop-server
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+import logging
+import os
+import pwd
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import time
+
+sys.path.append(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), ".."))
+from scripts.lib.zulip_tools import ENDC, OKGREEN, WARNING
+
+deploy_path = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), ".."))
+os.chdir(deploy_path)
+
+if pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid()).pw_name != "zulip":
+    logging.error("Must be run as user 'zulip'.")
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+logging.Formatter.converter = time.gmtime
+logging.basicConfig(format="%(asctime)s stop-server: %(message)s", level=logging.INFO)
+
+services = []
+
+# Start with the least-critical services:
+if os.path.exists("/etc/supervisor/conf.d/zulip/zulip_db.conf"):
+    services.append("process-fts-updates")
+
+if os.path.exists("/etc/supervisor/conf.d/zulip/thumbor.conf"):
+    services.append("zulip-thumbor")
+
+# Contrary to the order in (re)start-server, we stop django before the
+# workers, to increase the chance that we finish processing any work
+# that may have been enqueued by the Django, leaving the final state
+# closer to "empty."  We stop Django before Tornado so it doesn't try
+# to make requests to make queues with a down'd Tornado.
+services.append("zulip-django")
+services.extend(["zulip-tornado", "zulip-tornado:*"])
+services.append("zulip-workers:*")
+
+subprocess.check_call(["supervisorctl", "stop", *services])
+
+print()
+print(OKGREEN + "Zulip stopped successfully!" + ENDC)
+
+using_sso = subprocess.check_output(["./scripts/get-django-setting", "USING_APACHE_SSO"])
+if using_sso.strip() == b"True":
+    print()
+    print(WARNING + "Apache2 needs to be shut down; as root, run:" + ENDC)
+    print("    service apache2 stop")
+    print()
diff --git a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-gitter.md b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-gitter.md
index dd44c19d79..01e61f4560 100644
--- a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-gitter.md
+++ b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-gitter.md
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ the most common configuration, run the following commands:
 
 ```
 cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
-supervisorctl stop all  # Stop the Zulip server
+./scripts/stop-server
 ./manage.py convert_gitter_data gitter_data.json --output converted_gitter_data
 ./manage.py import '' converted_gitter_data
 ./scripts/restart-server
diff --git a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-mattermost.md b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-mattermost.md
index 67848d41f7..bfe109196f 100644
--- a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-mattermost.md
+++ b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-mattermost.md
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ the most common configuration, run the following commands, replacing
 cd /home/zulip
 tar -xzvf export.tar.gz
 cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
-supervisorctl stop all  # Stop the Zulip server
+./scripts/stop-server
 ./manage.py convert_mattermost_data /home/zulip/mattermost --output /home/zulip/converted_mattermost_data
 ./manage.py import "" /home/zulip/converted_mattermost_data/<team-name>
 ./scripts/restart-server
diff --git a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-slack.md b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-slack.md
index 2493905e6a..bb385cbd47 100644
--- a/templates/zerver/help/import-from-slack.md
+++ b/templates/zerver/help/import-from-slack.md
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ the most common configuration, run the following commands, replacing
 
 ```
 cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
-supervisorctl stop all  # Stop the Zulip server
+./scripts/stop-server
 ./manage.py convert_slack_data slack_data.zip --token <token> --output converted_slack_data
 ./manage.py import '' converted_slack_data
 ./scripts/restart-server
diff --git a/tools/ci/production-upgrade-pg b/tools/ci/production-upgrade-pg
index b59b74ad47..91234a10f7 100755
--- a/tools/ci/production-upgrade-pg
+++ b/tools/ci/production-upgrade-pg
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 set -e
 set -x
 
-ZULIP_PATH=/home/github/zulip
+cd /home/github/zulip
 
-supervisorctl stop all
-"$ZULIP_PATH"/scripts/setup/upgrade-postgresql
+su zulip -c ./scripts/stop-server
+./scripts/setup/upgrade-postgresql
 supervisorctl start all
 
 echo "Upgrade of PostgreSQL complete!"