Restarting your Servers

[IanT]

How often do you reboot your Servers?

[matt40k]

Depends on RAM and if there is a failover.

 

Generally,

 

Windows > monthly

Linux > yearly

BSD > never?

[Michael]

Most of the time it's when a Windows Update is applied, so it's rebooted out of hours. So you're talking every 1 to 3 months generally speaking.

 

There is no right or wrong answer here, it's simply a case of maintaining high availability to your users. The importance of rebooting, is (for example) the recent DNS vulnerability which did need a reboot for it to become 'active' and protect the network from DNS poisoning.

[IanT]

oooooooooooooooo

 

I tend to reboot all my servers every half term.

[timbo343]

Probably once every month or every half term

[leco]

I have been requested to reboot every fortnight, is this a little excessive given the previous suggestions? Edited January 22, 2009 by leco
spelling

[Dafty]

We only reboot servers out of hours when updates require it. Other than that ESX just manages everything beautifully.

 

Every 2 weeks does sound excessive to me!

[SYNACK]

Depends on the configuration and software. If you have some software on there that leaks memory like bad printer drivers you may need to restart the server/spooler service every so often so that it does not grind to a halt when the NP Pool memory runs out.

[leco]

Depends on the configuration and software. If you have some software on there that leaks memory like bad printer drivers you may need to restart the server/spooler service every so often so that it does not grind to a halt when the NP Pool memory runs out.

 

Ah now that sounds interesting, without wishing to divert the thread can you tell me more please?

[sparkeh]

Generally only when updates require it.

 

I do have one site where the virtual memory runs out about once a month, so reboot that monthly until I can get the time to get the bottom of what it going on.

[browolf]

windows update and reboot every half term. that way if something bad happens we have time to fix it and not disrupt lessons for days.

[Jamman960]

I generally try and keep reboots to every half term. I very rarely end up rebooting them during term times but if I do have to I often do it via VPN at home. on the rare occasion the server fails to come back up again I just head into work 30 mins earlier than normal.

[webman]

I only reboot the Linux servers if essential. Max uptime at the moment is 334days and it's not even on a UPS! Others are on 169d, 140d, 38d, and 99d. NM reboots the Windows ones every now and then - usually every 6-10 weeks.

[Dafty]

Same for us in a way. We do not restart any machines during the working day. Should something need to be restarted in an emergency then thanks to ESX a server is usually back up within 5 mins.

One of the benefits of virtualisation

[mattx]

Depends on RAM and if there is a failover.

 

Generally,

 

Windows > monthly

Linux > yearly

BSD > never?

 

BSD as in FreeBSD ? If so I agree !! - I am hoping to get it to two years.....

[maark]

Tip - an easy way to reboot overnight - set a scheduled task to run say 4.00am to run shutdown.exe (found in system32 folder) but do shutdown.exe -r this restarts rather than shutting down.

[srochford]

Tip - an easy way to reboot overnight - set a scheduled task to run say 4.00am to run shutdown.exe (found in system32 folder) but do shutdown.exe -r this restarts rather than shutting down.

 

Not saying don't ever do that but don't do that if it's critical that the machine is up and running again before you get to work in the morning (unless you start at 0430 :-))

 

99 times out 100, the automated shutdown and reboot will work fine. The one time it doesn't work is when it really, really matters that the server is up and running first thing and that will also be the one day when your bus doesn't come, the alarm doesn't go off or whatever :-(

[IanT]

I've done that before to reboot one of the DC's and it just HUNG!!! remotely!!

 

But rest of time works lovely!

[somabc]

With a bit of DIY knowledge you could build a mechanical button pushing device like this

 

http://img.thedailywtf.com/images/200812/sesam_open.jpg

 

Open Sesame - The Daily WTF

ITAPPMONROBOT - The Daily WTF

Edited January 22, 2009 by somabc

[sidewinder]

Update and reboot at half term. No need to do it any other time, except very occasionally the SIMS server as requested by the LEA.

If it was very urgent to reboot, I'd do the Apps and Print server during the day, would take a lot for me to reboot a DC during the day tho

[BaccyNet]

Most servers is out of hours when required (updates/clearing errors, etc) The only current exceptions are the Citrix blades that reboot nightly to solve a stuck sessions issue we are having. Hopefully wont be doing this for much longer though!

 

I would love to say we have a great uptime on ours but with the build project going on we are lucky to have half a year uptime, that and the wonders of Windows Updates:rolleyes:

[Sylv3r]

The servers here get a reboot every half term holidays.

 

Linux servers, don't get a reboot unless we make some config changes and its necessary.

[MicrodigitUK]

Ours reboot every Monday morning around 4am when my Ghost server takes an image of their C: drives for backup.

 

I chose Monday morning so if anything did ever go wrong with the ghosting I could get in and fix it Monday morning with minimal down time for external File access and web services.