I have inherited a really bad can of worms. I now support a small business that has 10 computers (xp pro/win7) networked on a domain with a single server. The server is Windows 2008 R2 and it is: DC w/ AD DS, DHCP, DNS, Hyper-V, File Server, Print Server, Remote Desktop Server and Web Server. I need to reboot this server to install software, but I would like some advice on what services I need to stop first. I would like to reboot these can-o-worms as gracefully as possible, but I understand if this is a pipe dream.

I have inherited a really bad can of worms. I now support a small business that has 10 computers (xp pro/win7) networked on a domain with a single server. The server is Windows 2008 R2 and it is: DC w/ AD DS, DHCP, DNS, Hyper-V, File Server, Print Server, Remote Desktop Server and Web Server. I need to reboot this server to install software, but I would like some advice on what services I need to stop first. I would like to reboot these can-o-worms as gracefully as possible, but I understand if this is a pipe dream. Hello, First of all, it is not recommend to have all these roles installed on the same server for performance and security reasons. At least, you can use two servers and make them: two DC / DNS / GC serversFile servers with DFS replication and namespaces... Like that you will ensure high-availability of AD / DNS services and you minimize risks of losing your AD domain. Also, you can ensure high-availability of your shares. If your server is actually in a healthy state, you can reboot it with no problems. Just, since your are running all these roles, you may experience failures when starting services. For that, you may need to start them manually. Actually you want to install a software and this again bad for performance reasons. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Designing and Providing Volume Licensing Solutions to Large Organizations Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Server Administrator Microsoft Certified Trainer

Perform a full system backup and you're good to restart the server. No need to worry about stopping any services, OS will shutdown all the services while shutting down. Proactively you can make sure there are no open files or active session to the server from computer management. Go to start - run - compmgmt.msc, under system tools look for shared folders, there you will see sessions/open files.- Sachin Gadhave MCP, MCSA, MCTS