Healthy Console Reminder

It’s easy to get spoiled these days. Most everything can be installed over RDP without a problem. But I read this today and was of reminded the importance of the console (even using /console for RDP). Thought it would be good information to share. Every couple of months or so, we'll get a call from an Administrator reporting that his system hung when he tried to reboot it after installing patches. More often than not, the patches were installed by an Administrator logging on to the server via Remote Desktop (without using the /console or /admin switch) and using either the Windows Update web site or the "Automatic Updates" tray icon. Both methods do the same thing and use the same processes. After the updates are installed, the Administrator clicks on the "Restart Now" button to complete the installation. The Remote Desktop Session goes away, and the Administrator thinks that the server is in the process of rebooting. However, the problem is that the server may not really be rebooting. When the Administrator tries to connect back into the server via RDP after several minutes, he discovers that he cannot. When he logs on at the console of the machine to investigate, he discovers that the RDP Listener is listening on port 3389 but no-one can connect via RDP. To resolve the issue, he has to reboot the server from the console. So what happened? http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/03/18/hotfix-installs-remote-desktop-and-the-reboot-that-wasn-t.aspx