# Starting a server

When you are ready to test your projects, you must start a server. In some situations, listed below, the server tools start a server for you automatically. For more information on which test server will start, refer to the list of related topics at the end of this topic.

Prerequisites

- Create a server.
- Add a project to the server.

Once you have started the server you can test the projects that are associated with the server. You can stop and restart the server at any time. The status of the server is displayed in the Status column of the Servers view.

To manually start a server:

1. Switch to the Servers view.
2. In the Servers view, right-click the server you want to start.
3. Select Start. The following things happen:
   - If you have selected the Automatically publish before starting servers check box on the Server preferences page (Window > Preferences > Server), the server tools check to see if your project and files on the server are synchronized prior to starting the server. If they are not, the project and the files are automatically updated on the remote server when it is started.
   - A Console view opens in the workbench. It will take a minute to start the server. If the server fails to start, check for the reason that it failed in the Console.
   - In the Status column of the Servers view, the status of the server changes to `Started`.

Tip: The server is automatically started when you right-click on a file and then select Run > Run on Server.

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