Server 2008 stuck in update-configure-fail-restart loop

Question

I have a Windows 2008 Standard server, fresh install, fully patched with no roles installed.

This morning I went and installed the following roles:

AD Certificates
Terminal Services
IIS

When the server restarts, it goes into "Configuring Updates" for 15 minutes. It then restarts. When it restarts, it says that the updates failed, and rolls them back. When I log in, it brings up the Roles wizard (as it usually does after adding a role) and tells me I need to restart again.

It will not let me remove any roles till I restart. Of course, when I restart it goes back to "Configuring Updates", fails, restarts, rolls back, then demands another restart, repeat and rinse.

How can I remove all of the pending roles without using the Remove Roles task in the Roles screen of the Server Manager (because it won't let me, because it demands a restart)?

JS. · Answer 1 · 2009-07-02T22:23:20.283

4

Try this:

Reboot from the server 2008 install disc and choose the repair option and command prompt.

navigate to c:\windows\winsxs, and rename pending.xml to pending.old

Reboot

edited Jul 02 '09 at 22:23

answered Jul 02 '09 at 22:10

JS.

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18

Thanks. I managed to get it fixed by another method, but this may have worked too... – Mark Henderson Jul 02 '09 at 22:44
I had to do this when trying to install a bunch of updates threw the server into a reboot loop. Worked great! – a_hardin Jun 28 '10 at 21:54

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 02 '09 at 22:45

I was able to fix the issue by:

Waiting for the restart loop to finished
Log in as a local administrator (not a domain user)
Go to the Roles panel, and install each role one-by-one
Logging in as local admin each time

Once I had the same roles installed that were failing, it started behaving again.

Server 2008 stuck in update-configure-fail-restart loop

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