How to find Windows servers that need a reboot

You might need to restart Windows servers prior to deploying patches or other software applications. This section describes a special script that helps you query servers in their Windows environments to determine which servers need to be restarted.

As its output, the script creates a Smart Server Group of Windows servers that need to be restarted.

Once servers have been found that need to be rebooted, the Rebooting Servers in a Controlled Manner (user contribution) script might come in handy.

To create and run a script for finding Windows servers that need to be restarted

1. Through the Property Dictionary, create a boolean property called NEEDS_REBOOT in the Server Property Class.
2. Within the Servers workspace, create a Smart Server Group that has the conditions NEEDS_REBOOT equals True.
3. In the Depot, create a new NSH Script using the following code.
   Ensure you set the script type to Execute separately against each host.
   
   

   
   ###################################################################
   #
   # SetRebootProperty.nsh
   # by Greg Kullberg
   # April 26, 2006
   #
   # REVISION HISTORY
   # Modified May 9, 2006 for compatibility with version 7.x
   # Modified May 25, 2006 - using blquery instead of reg to work w/ Windows 2000 systems
   #		also checks to see if it is running against a windows system
   # Modified Dec 14, 2006 (GK) - added better checking for DEBUG
   # Modified Jan 15, 2007 (GK) - now using the NSH_RUNCMD_HOST variable to get target host
   # Modified Mar 13, 2007 (GK) - Added additional registry check for UpdateExeVolatile
   #		key, which can also be used to determine a server needs to be rebooted
   # Modified Apr 28, 2011 (LB Jourdain) - added check for RebootRequired Key to detect
   #               w2k8 servers that need reboot after having been patched.
   # DESCRIPTION
   # Determines whether or not a Windows server needs to be rebooted
   #
   # This script will execute a 'reg query' and will check the registry
   # for the PendingFileRenameOperations key.  Depending on the result,
   # the script will set the NEEDS_REBOOT server property.
   #
   # Required Properties:	NEEDS_REBOOT
   # Script type:		Runscript
   #
   ###################################################################
    
   # Declare variables
   NEEDS_REBOOT="FALSE"
   DEBUG=$1
   HOST=$NSH_RUNCMD_HOST
   OS=`uname -s`
    
   echo "Host is $HOST, OS is $OS"
    
    
   # Set the DEBUG variable to 1 to print out all debug statements
   sub print_debug()
   {
      if [ "$DEBUG" = "TRUE" -o "$DEBUG" = "True" -o "$DEBUG" = "true" ]
      then
         echo $@
      fi
   }
    
    
   # Subroutine takes two arguments: The property name and the value to which
   # the property should be set.  It is assumed that the global server variable
   # defines the server for which the property should be set.
   sub set_server_property()
   {
   PROP_NAME=$1
   PROP_VALUE=$2
    
   print_debug "Executing command: blcli Server setPropertyValue $SERVER_ID $PROP_NAME $PROP_VALUE"
   RESULT=`blcli Server setPropertyValue $SERVER_ID $PROP_NAME "$PROP_VALUE"`
   if test "$?" = "0"
      then
         print_debug "$PROP_NAME property set to $PROP_VALUE on $HOST."
      else
         echo "ERROR: Failed to set $PROP_NAME property for $HOST: $RESULT"
   fi
   }
    
   # If the host isn't windows then we don't need to do anything
   if [ "$OS" = "WindowsNT" ]
      then
      # Get the server's ID
      print_debug "Executing command blcli Server getServerDBKeyByName $HOST"
      SERVER_ID=`blcli Server getServerDBKeyByName $HOST`
      print_debug echo "Result is $?"
      print_debug "Server ID is $SERVER_ID"
    
      ##############################################
      # Check the Session Manager Registry for PendingFileRenameOperations key,
      # RebootRequired Key and check for the UpdateExeVolatile Key.
      # If the PendingFileRenameOperations or RebootRequired
      # Keys exist, the server needs to be rebooted.  If the UpdateExeVolatile
      # Key exists, check the value.  If the value is anything other than 0, the
      # server needs to be rebooted.
      #
      # This data is based on information found on the following website:
      # http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/deployment/winupdte.mspx
      # and
      # http://blogs.msdn.com/b/hansr/archive/2006/02/17/patchreboot.aspx
      # (WUA is used under the hood to deploy patches on W2K8, patches do create these keys.)
      ###
    
      PENDING_FILE_RENAME="`blquery -h $HOST -e 'reg_value_exists ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\SYSTEM\\\\CurrentControlSet\\\\Control\\\\Session Manager\\\\PendingFileRenameOperations")' | tr -d '[:cntrl:]'`"
      REBOOTREQUIREDKEY="`blquery -h $HOST -e 'reg_key_exists ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\SOFTWARE\\\\Microsoft\\\\Windows\\\\CurrentVersion\\\\WindowsUpdate\\\\Auto Update\\\\RebootRequired")' | tr -d '[:cntrl:]'`"
      RESTART_STATUS="`blquery -h $HOST -e 'reg_value_exists ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\SOFTWARE\\\\Microsoft\\\\Updates\\\\UpdateExeVolatile")' | tr -d '[:cntrl:]'`"
    
      ##############################################
      # Set the RESTART_STATUS_VAL to zero by default.  If the UpdateExeVolatile Key
      # exists, query the value and set the RESTART_VAL variable to its actual value.
      #
      ###
    
      RESTART_STATUS_VAL="0"
      if [ "$RESTART_STATUS" = "1" ]
         then
         RESTART_STATUS_VAL="`blquery -h $HOST -e 'reg_value ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\\\SOFTWARE\\\\Microsoft\\\\Updates\\\\UpdateExeVolatile")' | tr -d '[:cntrl:]'`"
      fi
    
      if [ "$PENDING_FILE_RENAME" = "1" -o "$RESTART_STATUS_VAL" != "0" -o "$REBOOTREQUIREDKEY" = "1" ]
         then
            echo "Server needs to be rebooted."
            print_debug "Result from registry is: $RESULT"
            NEEDS_REBOOT="TRUE"
         else
            echo "Server does not need to be rebooted."
            NEEDS_REBOOT="FALSE"
      fi
    
    
      # Set the NEEDS_REBOOT property
      echo "Setting NEEDS_REBOOT to $NEEDS_REBOOT"
      set_server_property "NEEDS_REBOOT" "$NEEDS_REBOOT"
      else
         echo "$HOST is not Windows, skipping"
   fi
   

4. Create an NSH Script Job based on the script that you created in the previous step.
5. Execute the NSH Script Job.

   Note

   For the first time that you run this job, you might want to test the job against a small set of target hosts.

6. When the job completes, take a look at the log results of the script to see if it found any servers that appear to need restarting.
7. Browse to the Smart Server Group that you created earlier. The servers that need a reboot are included in the Smart Group.

Where to go from here

Decide whether to restart the detected servers now, or to schedule a job to restart them later (such as during a change window).