Keeping a node online
Your node doesn't have to be online all the time, but you should keep it online as much as possible to keep it in sync with the network. You can shut it down to restart it, but keep in mind that:
Shutting down can take a few minutes if the recent state is still being written on disk.
Forced shut downs can damage the database requiring you to resync the entire node.
Your client will go out of sync with the network and will need to resync when you restart it. While the node can begin syncing from were it was last shutdown, the process can take time depending on how long it has been offline.
