<p>I have pushed my .htaccess files to the production severs, but they don't work. Would a restart be the next step, or should I check something else.</p>

No
:
Apache allows for decentralized management of configuration via special files placed inside the web tree. The special files are usually called
```
.htaccess
```
, but any name can be specified in the
AccessFileName
directive... Since .htaccess files are read on every request, changes made in these files take immediate effect...