The shell script ./shutdown.sh can be used to shut down a remote EAP instance. For example:

./shutdown.sh -s jnp://<AS bind address>:1099 -S

will cause the server to shutdown cleanly.

It may also be used to terminate the JVM directly, through the use of the org.jboss.Shutdown arguments -e and -H:

// force the VM to exit with exit code
./shutdown.sh -s jnp://<AS bind address>:1099 -e <exit code>

// force the VM to halt, with exit code
./shutdown.sh -s jnp://<AS bind address>:1099 -H <exit code>

These latter two functions are broken. For example, after starting an EAP instance on bind address 192.168.0.100,
the following call to shutdown has no visible effect on the server and the following exception is generated:

[nrla@localhost bin]$ ./shutdown.sh -s 192.168.0.100 -e 1
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.UndeclaredThrowableException
at $Proxy1.exit(Unknown Source)
at org.jboss.Shutdown.main(Shutdown.java:234)
Caused by: javax.management.ReflectionException
at org.jboss.mx.server.AbstractMBeanInvoker.invoke(AbstractMBeanInvoker.java:231)
at org.jboss.mx.server.MBeanServerImpl.invoke(MBeanServerImpl.java:668)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.jboss.jmx.connector.invoker.InvokerAdaptorService.invoke(InvokerAdaptorService.java:266)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.jboss.mx.interceptor.ReflectedDispatcher.invoke(ReflectedDispatcher.java:157)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.dispatch(Invocation.java:96)
at org.jboss.mx.interceptor.AbstractInterceptor.invoke(AbstractInterceptor.java:138)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.invoke(Invocation.java:90)
at org.jboss.mx.interceptor.ModelMBeanOperationInterceptor.invoke(ModelMBeanOperationInterceptor.java:140)
at org.jboss.jmx.connector.invoker.SerializableInterceptor.invoke(SerializableInterceptor.java:74)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.invoke(Invocation.java:90)
at org.jboss.mx.server.AbstractMBeanInvoker.invoke(AbstractMBeanInvoker.java:264)
at org.jboss.mx.server.MBeanServerImpl.invoke(MBeanServerImpl.java:668)
at org.jboss.invocation.jrmp.server.JRMPProxyFactory.invoke(JRMPProxyFactory.java:180)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.jboss.mx.interceptor.ReflectedDispatcher.invoke(ReflectedDispatcher.java:157)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.dispatch(Invocation.java:96)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.invoke(Invocation.java:88)
at org.jboss.mx.server.AbstractMBeanInvoker.invoke(AbstractMBeanInvoker.java:264)
at org.jboss.mx.server.MBeanServerImpl.invoke(MBeanServerImpl.java:668)
at org.jboss.invocation.jrmp.server.JRMPInvoker$MBeanServerAction.invoke(JRMPInvoker.java:855)
at org.jboss.invocation.jrmp.server.JRMPInvoker.invoke(JRMPInvoker.java:422)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:305)
at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:159)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:155)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:535)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run0(TCPTransport.java:790)
at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:649)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unable to find operation exit(int)
... 46 more

I have performed the same operation on EAP 4.2 and the operation works as expected.