Cannot restart or RDC into Win2k3 server after SP1 + Oct updates

[Guest]

We recently applied SP1 to some of our Windows Server 2003, rebooted and ran
the remaining October windows updates. We usually remote desktop (RDC) to
these servers to perform the updates but found that we when we couldn't
restart the server after th updates... instead the RDC session disconnects
and we can no longer reconnect with RDC.

Has anyone else experience this? If so how did you resolve it?

Google and other extensive searches reveal these 2 articles.


http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1173#comment
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;898060



thanks in advance for your help,

Tony

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Did you install the updates from within an rdp sessions?
If so, have you tried an additional restart of the server?
Is there anything in the EventLog?
Can you open an rdp session to the server when logged in on the
physical console?
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[Guest]

Did you install the updates from within an rdp sessions?
YES

If so, have you tried an additional restart of the server?

There server will not restart with RDP session. RDP disconnect instead, but
then you can't RDP back to the server again. You can do a ping -t on the
server and notice that it never restarts. I had to call someone at the remote
site (server is located in CA, I'm located in DC) to physically reboot the
server from console. After physical reboot, RDP connection works again.

Is there anything in the EventLog?

No errors are listed in the logs.

Can you open an rdp session to the server when logged in on the
physical console?

Yes, someone can be logged in on the console and I will still be able to
connect via RDP and open another session.

 

[Ed Hansberry, MS-MVP/Mobile Devices]

There server will not restart with RDP session. RDP disconnect instead, but
then you can't RDP back to the server again. You can do a ping -t on the
server and notice that it never restarts. I had to call someone at the remote
site (server is located in CA, I'm located in DC) to physically reboot the
server from console. After physical reboot, RDP connection works again.

Doesn't help your immediate issue, but next time, just RDP into
another box and use the shutdown -m \\machinename -r command. That
will remotely reboot any machine you have admin rights on.
--
_____________________________________
Ed Hansberry
email - (e-mail address removed)
IM - (e-mail address removed)
My high-tech web page - http://www.ehansberry.com/

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

There server will not restart with RDP session. RDP disconnect
instead, but then you can't RDP back to the server again. You
can do a ping -t on the server and notice that it never
restarts. I had to call someone at the remote site (server is
located in CA, I'm located in DC) to physically reboot the
server from console. After physical reboot, RDP connection works
again.

Yes, that's what I thought.
Not all updates can be performed through an rdp session. And they
might need a hard reboot.
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
*----------- Please reply in newsgroup -------------*

 

[Guest]

Hi Ed,

I tried to RDP into another box and use the shutdown command. It seems like
the command is issued but never executes, sort of just stays in queue or
something. The ping -t shows that packets are sent and received from the
server in question.

I also tried Pstools's psshutdown from sysinternals.... same result.

 

[Guest]

Yes, we had to do a hard reboot from console and everything came back up and
RDP was able to connect again, but the interesting thing is when we went
ahead to do another reboot from an RDP session, the same thing happened...
server doesn't reboot... RDP session is disconnected and we cannot reconnect
via RDP

It's very strange.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Yes, we had to do a hard reboot from console and everything came
back up and RDP was able to connect again, but the interesting
thing is when we went ahead to do another reboot from an RDP
session, the same thing happened... server doesn't reboot... RDP
session is disconnected and we cannot reconnect via RDP

It's very strange.

Yes, it is. You use the tsshutdn command, I assume?
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[Guest]

Yes, we tried various ways of rebooting...

1) restart gracely from Start > Shutdown > Restart
2) shutdown -m \\machinename -r command
3) used psshutdown utility from sysinternals.

All methods have failed. It seems like the server hangs and the restart
command is never executed. And then the remote desktop session is
disconnected and you cannot reconnect again. However the server is still up (
you can ping it and access the file shares).

Vera, I heard you mention something regarding the MTU size problem caused by
MS05-019 or Win2k3 SP1 causing network connectivity issue. Could this be
related?

Is there anything else I can investigate?

Thanks in advance,
Tony

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

OK, switched to top-posting. Fine with me, but hard to follow the
thread.

No, the MTU size has nothing to do with your problem.

BUT: the recommended method to shutdown a TS remotely is with the
"tsshutdn" command. That takes care of remote connections.
tsshutdn is documented in Start - Help & Support

Note that there was a problem with tsshutdn, but it is fixed in SP1
(which you installed) and it gave a specfic error message about
"logon disabled". So after SP1, tsshutdn should work.

842506 - You cannot use the tsshutdn command to restart a Windows
Server 2003-based terminal server
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=842506
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___