More on the Windows Server 2003 SP2 – SNP (Scalable Networking Pack) issue

Well, this is getting more and more interesting…

Nevermind the SNP feature pack in SP2 for Windows Server 2003 sucks and that this patch helps reverse it…

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948496

But better still, after applying the patch (and in general, these symptoms occur), applying a reboot to a server that has just been patched, using a Remote Desktop connection (RDP), the server goes into a state where:

  • connectivity is slow
  • RDP is no longer available
  • it appears it has shutdown but doesn’t come back up

The harsh reality is that its only partly down, and the reboot has not occurred properly. The good news, assuming you have at least one other Windows machine on the same network that you can access remotely, is that you can use the shutdown.exe /i command to launch the remote shutdown command and push a reboot to the server. After applying http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948496, assuming you did during this issue, reboots following it will be better.

Yahoo!

This fella blogged this too… so its good to know I’m not alone.

http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2008/02/14/windows-2003-sbs-2003-restart-problems.aspx