we have a number of servers in our office, as a small hosting company, and these servers are critical to business, … web server, mail server, db server, etc.
On a semi-regular basis, when the machines get automatic updates, they just automagically reboot themselves in the middle of the night. A number of them have software which must be running on the console session (bad practice, I know, but out of my control). When they reboot themselves, these programs obviously shut down, leaving customers upset and services interrupted.
How do you set a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine to NEVER automagically reboot itself after updates? And perhaps, if possible, to instead email someone so that they are aware it needs a pending reboot and can schedule it for the best time?
Thanks in advance!
Best Answer
In group policy for the server, navigate to:
Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Windows Update->No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Update installation
You can get to this by running
gpedit.msc.Reboot to apply changes.
Don't forget that your server won't be updated until you reboot and will be vulnerable to the threats!