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)?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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.