OK... this is a long one... sorry in advance to anyone annoyed by that...

I started writing this reply by telling you how to write a startup/shutdown script, what it needed to have & why, and where you needed to put it and why -- the result was too long and too confusing. So, as an alternative, I'm going to fist explain RHL & Fedora system startup & shutdown. If all you want is the HOWTO (and none of the WHY), then skip ahead to the "Step 1" part below.

RedHat, Fedora, and most other SYS-V types of Unix (including LOTS of other Unix's and Linux distributions!) startup and shutdown using something called a "run level" system. For RHL & Fedora, there are typically 7 run levels. The most commonly used ones are:
 0 - halt the system (shutdown & turn off)
 1 - single user mode (almost like a Windows "safe mode")
 3 - "standard" startup, but with no GUI (Command line only!)
 5 - "standard" startup, with the GUI (the Red Hat & Fedora "standard" startup level
 6 - "restart" -- that is, shut down & reboot

How this comes into play is that there are separate directories (folders) for each run level:
 /etc/rc0.d
 /etc/rc1.d
 /etc/rc3.d
 /etc/rc5.d
 /etc/rc6.d
(plus more I haven't explained today)

In each folder are a BUNCH of files (actually symbolic links) that start with the letters S & K (caps). In short, the S files will be run to start a feature, the K files will be run to stop a feature. (The K files are actually run first -- I'll explain the mechanism later). The point here and now is that the S01sysstat and K99sysstat point to the SAME file: /etc/init.d/sysstat

What has happened is that we (Linux gurus) have "encapsulated" all of the "knowledge" about starting, stopping, restarting, or any other important action about "sysstat" into a single file. At a minimum, this file must take the following arguments:
 start: to start the sysstat "feature" (in this case, a single daemon process)
 stop: to stop the "feature" (in this case, stop the daemon)
 status: to show whether the "feature" is currently active or now
 restart: to stop, then start the "feature"

So, when the system starts up, it boots into a "run level" -- which means it runs the K* and then the S* files in the appropriate folder. (the default run level is set in the /etc/inittab file as the initdefault value). For the rest of this "tutorial", I'm going to assume your default run level is a 5.

(NOTE: This is an admittedly ABBREVIATED explanation of startup & shutdown)
AT SYSTEM STARTUP:
After the system starts the kernel, the initdefault level is determined (5 in this example) & after some early "housekeeping", the system runs (in order) all of the S* scripts in /etc/rc5.d directory, each with a "start" argument. Think of it as though you were running:
 /etc/rc5.d/S01sysstat start
 /etc/rc5.d/S04readahead_early start
 ... and so on until
 /etc/rc5.d/S99local start

AT SYSTEM SHUTDOWN
You can actually change the run level of your system at any time with the "init" command. When you're CHANGING run levels, all of the K* scripts are run with stop arguments BEFORE the S* scripts are run. So, in the case of a shutdown (run level 0), when you run the shutdown command (or type "init 0" from a root prompt), the system will run ALL of the scripts /etc/rc0.d/K* in order, and each with a stop argument... like:
 /etc/rc0.d/K01yum stop
 /etc/rc0.d/K02avahi-daemon
 ... and so on to
 /etc/rc0.d/K99sysstat

BUT WAIT! We still have to run the S* scripts! In the case of run level 0, this is usually:
 S00killall start
 S01halt start
The latter of which is how you tell the system to turn off. (Compare that to the file /etc/rc6.d/S01reboot)

One final tidbit: there is a RedHat program called chkconfig that, based on a comment field in the script, will automatically generate the symbolic links in all of the /etc/rc*.d folders.  "chkconfig" (which is also a script) looks for 2 lines (actually, COMMENT lines) in the provided (on the command line) script file that looks like this:
       # chkconfig: 2345 20 80
       # description: Controls some process or functionality
OK, the description is actually not required... but the FIRST line tells chkconfig to create the appropriate links to START your program (that is, to run your script with a "Start" argument when booting into run levels 2, 3, 4, or 5)

Now, the other 2 numbers on the line (the 20 & 80) are the instructions for WHEN to start & stop the program (or, more exactly, in what order to call your script in relation to all the others). Remember, the startup & shutdown commands run the K* scripts (in order), then the S* scripts (in order) -- the numbers just provide the order!

So now, back to the 20 & 80 -- the 2 means that when chkconfig CREATES the links in the /etc/rc[2345].d folders, it will create S-scrpts with a 20 after the S. The other /etc/rc[*].d folders will get K scripts with an 80 after the K... thus, creating the order.

------

OK... so, to answer your question "How do I make the Progress DB turn off nicely at system shutdown":

Step 1: Create a script (called "progressdb"?) and place it in /etc/init.d
 This script must take an argument of "start" and "stop" at a minimum
 This script should have the # chkconfig: line as described above, for example:
# chkconfig: 2345 99 01
# description: start the Progress DB last, and stop it first

Step 2: CHECK your script file! Make sure it works with start and stop options CORRECTLY!

Step 3:Assuming it is already located in /etc/init.d, run the program:
# chkconfig --add progressdb
this will create the startup and shutdown links to your script file. Assuming you named it "progressdb", the result will be that symbolic links will be placed in the /etc/rc*.d folders, ALL of which will "point" to YOUR file: /etc/init.d/progressdb:
 /etc/rc0.d/K80progressdb
 /etc/rc1.d/K80progressdb
 /etc/rc2.d/S20progressdb
 /etc/rc3.d/S20progressdb
 /etc/rc4.d/S20progressdb
 /etc/rc5.d/S20progressdb
 /etc/rc6.d/K80progressdb

Step 4: If you need to start the Progress DB (without restarting your system) run the command:
service progressdb start

I hope this helps.... someone!!!

Dan McAllister
IT4SOHO