diff --git a/LCU/Maintenance/MDB_tools/fabfile.py b/LCU/Maintenance/MDB_tools/fabfile.py
index 8654a59c39baf6cab2b32f9043ef73bb5190d1b1..ebed623637548dab195cceffd51dfbbbbf47d77b 100644
--- a/LCU/Maintenance/MDB_tools/fabfile.py
+++ b/LCU/Maintenance/MDB_tools/fabfile.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 from invoke import task
 import fabric
 from fabric.connection import Connection
-
+import time
 
 import os
 
@@ -12,15 +12,20 @@ REMOTE_DIR = '/data/mancini/deploy/'
 REMOTE_INSTALL_DIR = 'installed'
 PATH_SETTINGS_FILE = 'lib64/python3.6/site-packages/lofar/maintenance/django_postgresql/settings.py'
 BASE_SETTINGS_FILE_PATH = 'settings.py'
+MANAGE_SCRIPT = 'maintenance_d.sh'
+
+
+LOG_FILE = 'django_postgres.log'
 
 users = {
-    'test' : 'mancini'
+    'test': 'mancini'
 }
 
 servers = {
-    'test':'lofarmonitortest'
+    'test': 'lofarmonitortest'
 }
 
+
 def rsync_compressed(c, from_path='address', to_path='address'):
     to_address = '{}@{}:{}'.format(c.user, c.host, to_path)
     command = 'rsync -avz {} {}'.format(from_path, to_address)
@@ -42,6 +47,39 @@ def copy_to_remote_server(c, type):
     print('deploying on host {} directory {}'.format(c.host, deploy_dir))
     rsync_compressed(c, LOCAL_DIR, deploy_dir)
 
+
+def _connection(type):
+    host = servers[type]
+    user = users[type]
+    return Connection(host, user=user)
+
+@task
+def run_server(c, type):
+    deploy_dir = os.path.join(REMOTE_DIR, type)
+    start_script = os.path.join(deploy_dir, MANAGE_SCRIPT)
+
+    with _connection(type) as c:
+        log_path = os.path.join(deploy_dir, LOG_FILE)
+
+        with c.cd(deploy_dir):
+            cmd = 'sh {} start'.format(start_script)
+            print('executing command',cmd)
+            print(c.run(cmd, pty=False))
+
+            time.sleep(5)
+            print('log can be found at', log_path)
+            c.run('tail {}'.format(log_path))
+
+@task
+def tear_down_server(c, type):
+    deploy_dir = os.path.join(REMOTE_DIR, type)
+    log_path = os.path.join(deploy_dir, LOG_FILE)
+    with _connection(type) as c:
+        user = c.user
+        print(c.run('killall -u {} gunicorn'.format(user)))
+        print(log_path)
+        print(c.run('tail {}'.format(log_path)))
+
 @task
 def deploy_to_server(c, type):
     if isinstance(c, fabric.Connection):
@@ -56,7 +94,6 @@ def deploy_to_server(c, type):
 
 @task
 def update(c):
-
     # make
     with c.cd(BUILD_DIR):
         c.run('pwd')