Test to see if a Server need a reboot

[Gerhard]

We deploy servicepacks, hotfixes and/or updates automatically to our servers and afterwards we use a reboot script te reboot all the servers. Sometimes a server won't reboot and therefore the installed patches are not finished installing. I would like to know if there is a test where you can check if the server is waiting for a reboot. I thought there should be an entry in the registry stating that the server need a reboot???

Regards, gerhard

[Yoorix]

We deploy servicepacks, hotfixes and/or updates automatically to our servers and afterwards we use a reboot script te reboot all the servers. Sometimes a server won't reboot and therefore the installed patches are not finished installing.

What script do you use to reboot the server? I think, command shutdown -r -f definitely will reboot the server. Do you use WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) for manage updates? If not, you should try it: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsservers ... fault.mspx

Regards,
Yoorix

[JuergenF]

I would like to know if there is a test where you can check if the server is waiting for a reboot. I thought there should be an entry in the registry stating that the server need a reboot???

Hope this may help you

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operati ... 13497.html

[Gerhard]

Yoorix, We use a perl script to call on the win32 api to use the shutdown command. This script first checks if a server is up and then send a shutdown command (shutdown -r -f) and then creates a log file with error codes and such. I would like to test if windows server is waiting for a reboot because the reboot script is not 100% efficient. We do not use WSUS (we still have some NT domains).

JuergenF, The question on expert-exchange inded is the same as mine, unfortunately i cannot see the solution (i am not a member).

Thanks,

Regards Gerhard

[JuergenF]

Sorry

How can I determine if a reboot is pending on a Windows 2000 server? For example how do you tell if someone had installed a patch or changed something within Windows for example that prompted them "You must restart your computer" (and they clicked no). In other words the system requires a restart?
Please note I'm not looking to tell if someone installed a patch etc. We have been changing IP settings on our Windows 2000 servers and some prompted us to reboot them. Obvioulsy you should not need to when making IP changes so we figure that maybe a change was made previously that prompted a reboot and the reboot was not done at that time.

I was thinking perhaps there is a "reboot pending" type flag in the registry or a file but I cant find it.

Thanks

Comment from Wadski
Date: 05/05/2005 05:30AM PDT
Comment


Not an exact answer but this MS Knowledgebase article has a registry value for pending files changes.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=312444

Although we have found that we had to restart a server if more than one person wad connected to it when changing the IP addresses. (I guess it is because it knows it will lose connection to the user and possibly lose data)

Wadski

Accepted Answer from S3quence
Date: 05/07/2005 04:11PM PDT
Grade: B
Accepted Answer


Click -Start - Run and type Regedit browse to the following registry key...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Pending File Rename Operations

The 2 other possible registry keys are...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx

If there are entries in any of these then a reboot is required!

Regards

Michael