Rich Castaneda is owner of TSP Technology Group located in Gresham, OR. TSP Technology is a Microsoft Certified Small Business Specialist and provides computer and network support services to small and medium size businesses in the Gresham, Oregon and surrounding areas of Troutdale, Fairview, Portland, and Clackamas. 
Server Hangs After Reboot
Even a simple reboot of a Windows Server can result in a server down emergency-especially when done remotely. A clients Small Business Server 2008 was utilizing more memory than it should (probably due to a memory leak). We made the decision to reboot it since it hadn’t been done in 73 days. We informed the client we would be doing this after-hours from a remote location. Well, as you can infer from the title, the SBS machine did not come back online. This is a good argument for configuring technology that allows remote management of a computer without having to have access to the Windows Operating System. HP’s Integrated Lights Out or the Intel vPro Technology would have been very useful in this case. More to follow…
As it turns out, the problem was the boot order. The server was trying to boot from an external USB drive. Our tech changed the boot order and the server came up normally. Integrated Lights Out would have allowed us to troubleshoot and fix the issue remotely. Instead we had to dispatch a technician. Lesson learned.