Systems and methods for managing the traffic handled by an application server while the application server is in the process of restarting is disclosed. An application server has a plurality of internal processing units. When the application server is restarted, it signals a forwarding node to cease forwarding traffic to the internal processing units. When all of the nodes are ready, or at the expiration of a predetermined time interval, the application server signals the forwarding node to resume forwarding traffic to the internal processing units.