Hello everyone. I recently had several problems on a machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 after an update failure (see this thread for specifics). I successfully "revived" the server in question but was left with a barren one. After working several days on this issue, facing numerous problems such as a non-responsive DHCP server, and finally trying an upgrade in place (didn't work), I just reinstalled the whole server. There were full data backups (SQL & IIS) available so there really was no point in wasting more time in this charade.. I thank everyone here for the help I received (once again), but I still raise a question regarding "what in the world happened?". A normal update of the server should not initiate a week's worth of work and a reinstall. So what really happened? While reading these forums I've noticed that my issue is definately not the only one.. and since this seems to be related to Windows Update, hopefully something can be done about this. I have a lot of customers running Windows Servers and I've only had a few issues related to this problem, so again I just wonder what happened that managed to screw the whole system? Anyhow, this message is just a "heads up" for everyone reading the forums.. I'll be happy to provide you MS guys with details if you need them. Right now, after a clean install, everything works just fine.. do I dare to run WU again on this server.. ? /*Nexenizer*/

Currently I can only provide some suggestions for you: 1. Test the update before installing it on production systems. Setup a Virtual Machine which has the same configuration with your production system to test. You can also do other testing on this system, it’s very convenient. 2. Backup production system before making changes. It’s worth the time and effects to backup. 3. Close unnecessary software, including antivirus software, Firewall temporarily when installing updates. Sorry for the inconvenience this issue has brought. If there is anything we can do for you, please let us know. Thanks. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hello again. The VM environment is definately some that I shall setup on this particular server, hopefully it will help with future updates. In this case backups existed but for some reason no restore was possible. Everything I tried resulted in an error. This has not happened before so I can't really say what happened, I just got errors saying that this version of the backup cannot be restored. But since the server was "only a simple DC with fileshares" and the system was on a different partition, it was relatively fast to restore by doing a reinstallation without fussing around. AV software was the only extra software running at the time of the failed update. This therefore could be cause for the problem.. /*Nexenizer*/

Testing like that (point #1) is often impossible. It is a "pat answer" that gets under my skin more than anything. Systems can be so complex that they cannot be duplicated in a VM and a VM is not going to have the same hardware and some hardware is not and cannot be virtualized. It can also take days or weeks to setup even a semi-accurate Lab. Even after an update is applied problems with an update may not be immediately appearant or not exist at all in the Lab. Then add to all those problems the fact that there are so many updates with a nearly infinite variation in combination of patches that it is impossible to address all the possible combinations. If MS, with all it's resources and manpower doesn't sufficiently test,...how is the customer ever supposed to be able to?,...particularly when many of them can't even afford the hardware to just have one spare machine to do anything with. About all you can do is have a Full System State Backup capable of using for a Bare-Metal Restore (for every server) before applying the weekly updates to protect ourselves.

Yes.. you make valid point Phillip.. /*Nexenizer*/