Although JVM will translate SIGTERM and similar signals to shutdown hooks, many service shutdown scripts use a TCP port to initiate a shutdown. (e.g. Tomcat\'s shutdown por
As long as Java service uses ShutdownHooks wisely for orderly termination, there is no problem in sending SIGTERM to JVM process. E.g. we use SIGTERM as a primary method for initiating an application shutdown in our large high-load production system (5000+ servers running 80 different Java applications).