Windows Server 2012 R2 DC's take almost exactly an hour to reboot after Windows Updates

Question

For several months now, every time any of our 3 Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers reboot, they're unreachable for an hour according to our network monitoring software (PRTG).

I can see from the event logs that the Security Accounts Manager service does not start properly with event ID 7044 (The following service is taking more than 16 minutes to start and may have stopped responding: Security Accounts Manager).

Then nearly an hour later, I see event ID 7043 (The Windows Modules Installer service did not shut down properly after receiving a preshutdown control.)

We've got plenty of other 2012 R2 member servers all installing Windows Updates in a timely fashion - it's only those servers with the Active Directory and DHCP roles installed that take an hour to reboot.

I've Googled this on several occasions and haven't come across anyone else experiencing the same.

Solution

Created an account just to share my experience with this issue today.

Virtual 2012r2 DC/File Share/Print Mgmt server was being extremely slow. Shutdown/restart buttons did nothing, and running a shutdown via Hyper-V caused a blue screen that stuck around for long than I wanted to wait for (work hours, production server).

Hard-shutdown the VM process and started it back up. Windows updates were pending, unknown to me, and after arriving at the "Shutting down service: Windows Module Installer", the server took a full hour (like yours, almost exactly 1 hour) before successfully rebooting.

Every post I read said to be patient, and that was indeed the case. A look at the event viewer after the reboot showed two 7043 ID entries - One for the Windows Module Installer service, and one for the Group Policy Client service. "The Windows Module Installer service did not shut down properly after receiving a preshutdown control."

Best suggestion I've found for a potential fix is to "reset" the SoftwareDistribution folder:

1. Stop the Windows Updates service

a. Open services.msc (Services)

b. Right-click the "Windows Updates" service

c. Click "Stop". The service will take a moment to stop

2. Rename the SoftwareDistribution folder at "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" to something like "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution_old"

3. Restart the Windows Updates service.

a. Return to services.msc (Services)

b. Right-click the "Windows Updates" service

c. Click "Start". The service will take a moment to start

Hope this helps someone in the future! (and let me know if this solution helps you out! I'm curious to hear other experiences/suggestions)

Comments

[duenni]

Does this happen after every reboot or only when the server installed updates? Can you login locally when the server is offline according to your monitoring?

[Matty Brown]

Trouble is, we never reboot our Domain Controllers during office hours. The one time I witnessed the problem via Hyper-V Manager, I think it said "Please wait for the Windows Modules Installer". I might manually reboot it out of hours to find out.

[Matty Brown]

I rebooted one of the offending servers this morning, after it had taken an hour to install Windows Updates during the night. It rebooted in <1 minute.

[Matty Brown]

"The Windows Modules Installer service terminated with the following error: Indicates that the starting value for the LDT information was not an integral multiple of the selector size." was logged and seems to have been logged every time there's been an issue. What does this message even mean??

[rjt]

Several months ago, we had completely reset the softwareDistribution folder many times, but did not fix this problem. Glad you had better luck. Now, there could be an improved Servicing Stack Update or other update that allows this solution to work.