The AMC Butler can be used to start, stop and get the status of a crate:

amc_butler.py -c <crate_ip> --command <command>

or multiple AMCs:

amc_butler.py -a <amc_ips> --command <command>

The start and stop command are issued once for each AMC sequentially, while the status command runs indefinately and get the status of the AMCs every 10 s.