What is the best way to reboot multiple systems after hours on a schedule?

Posted by This_guy_works@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 35 comments

Back in my previous job we used PDQ deploy and we could target different servers or AD groups with a script to run at a scheduled time. So, for example we could target the 10 or so servers we wanted to reboot on Wednesday nights at 10PM, and the ones we wanted to reboot on Sunday morning at 2AM, and which PC groups recieved a daily reboot overnight. Unfortunately, at my new position, we do not have any tool like that in place. My immediate need is I have several servers I want to schedule to reboot weekly during early morning hours to prevent them from running indefinitely until we manually reboot them. I was thinking I would just use Windows Task Scheduler, but that can be a pain to manage individually on each machine. I could create a local account on each device to run the task as, but that's a credential per device I need to manage and update instead of the restart jobs all coming form one location/account. Is there some sort of service or tool that is trusted in the business world I could try using so I can set up something similar to what I had before? Where I could run a job on a schedule, see if it succeeded, and then disable/enable the schedules as needed?

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35 Comments

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sryan2k1@reddit

Fix why you need to reboot servers nightly instead of hacking a way to reboot them.

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Kahless_2K@reddit

So you are saying, remove windows. Gotcha.

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This_guy_works@reddit (OP)

I don't NEED to reboot them on a weekly schedule, but it would be good peace of mind knowing they are getting regular reboots.

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shdwflux@reddit

This is way excessive. We reboot Windows servers only for maintenance reasons and security updates so typically they reboot once a month at most.

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sryan2k1@reddit

Outside of patching anything getting regular reboots is broken.

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Kahless_2K@reddit

The "I have no budget" way of doing it is to use windows task manager on one server to run PowerShell scripts that target the other servers.

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Ad-1316@reddit

powershell server reboots and schedule the .ps file in task scheduler on a DC

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

my issue with this is that when I try to run ps from a scheduled task all it does is launch notepad lol. You don't need to use a powershell or cmd script to do the reboot, but what I would like to do is check if the uptime is greater than 5 days initiate the reboot, if not chill until next week.

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

by defaut opening a powershell script edits in notepad. pass the script tot powershell.exe via command line.  So you task starts powershell.exe and in the arguments field put -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -noprofile -file <path\\filename> And if you do not know about execution policies, they are largely useless anyway, but you can refer to this. (Not sure how many of them still work) [https://www.netspi.com/blog/technical/network-penetration-testing/15-ways-to-bypass-the-powershell-execution-policy/](https://www.netspi.com/blog/technical/network-penetration-testing/15-ways-to-bypass-the-powershell-execution-policy/) full syntax for working with powershell.exe [https://ss64.com/ps/powershell.html](https://ss64.com/ps/powershell.html)

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

Thank you, I've done this still no joy..

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

Since this is certainly how it works, there could be a few things going on, config error, something wrong with your powershell installation, syntax error, etc... I would start the first line of the powershell script as Start-Transaction -Path <path\\logfile> [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.host/start-transcript?view=powershell-7.4](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.host/start-transcript?view=powershell-7.4)  Then check logfile,, that will keep record of everything that happened in the script, if it never makes it there, you are either are configuring the task incorrectly, or you powershell installation/setting are borked.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

dmanit why do i always forget about start-transaction... I'll do that to see whats going on. I've found a work around by using a batch file but not getting the ps script to work bothers me.

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

if the batch file works and task does not, can you share the batch file, could likely tell you what may or may not be working in the task...

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

The task will run the batch file as intended, but if i have the task run a powershell script, that fires notepad.

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

can you show the content of the batch file? And or want to move to chat to stop hijacking this thread?

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

I was just thinking the same thing about the thread jacking Let me sterilize the batch file and the powershell script and i'll dm you

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sitesurfer253@reddit

You're doing it wrong...

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

obviously... so how should it be done?

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sitesurfer253@reddit

I don't know how you're doing it, but if you follow just about any tutorial on Google about it, you should be able to figure it out.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

Thanks for the no help... I have tried that, actually many of them, with no luck... chime back in when you can offer useful assistance...

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sitesurfer253@reddit

I'm confused, did you want me to write a tutorial for you like all of the other ones you have followed? Not sure how much help that would be since you're not able to get it working. Unless of course your script is intended to open notepad.exe, then you've got the hang of it. If you want help, maybe ask for it in a support subreddit.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

No, I don't want that at all, but if have something useful to offer sure I'll hear it out, and give it go... if you all you're going to do is run you lip and say "you're doing it wrong" you can leave you humor at home...

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sitesurfer253@reddit

Literally the only useful advice is to find a tutorial and make sure you follow it 100%. No humor, it's a very widely used method to run powershell scripts on domain machines, take some time and figure it out.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

So literally your best advice is to google it? you are absolutely useless...

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sitesurfer253@reddit

You're not getting my best advice because you're not paying me, and you're not providing any info other than it not working, so again, what could I possibly do to help you?

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evantom34@reddit

I use GPO targeting an OU. Works well. God some people are so unhelpful.

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Rekari@reddit

As you're already familiar with PDQ, the free version should be able to facilitate this.

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This_guy_works@reddit (OP)

I'd like to give that a try, but ai am not seeing anything available other than the 14-day free trial for the enterprise version.

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Gakamor@reddit

It has been a minute since I used the free version but they still advertise it. [https://www.pdq.com/blog/what-you-can-do-with-pdq-deploy-free-mode/](https://www.pdq.com/blog/what-you-can-do-with-pdq-deploy-free-mode/) It might revert to the free mode after the trial is up. You know, after you are hooked on those sweet enterprise features.

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frac6969@reddit

Correct. They also don’t advertise it very well but PDQ is actually “perpetual license”. You only lose updates and the library if you don’t renew.

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whatchulookinatman@reddit

BatchPatch.

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-quakeguy-@reddit

The same GPO you are using to have them download and install patches should be scheduling and doing the rebooting, duh.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

We do this for "reboot assurance", sometimes our patch management does not reboot the server when we want it to... I set a scheduled task to do it, and pushed it with powershell... easy peasy.

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Silent331@reddit

If you have AD you can just schedule a task at OUs or groups to reboot at a specific time in group policy

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

Any endpoint management solution/rmm/patch management should be able to pull this off.  You can check over at /r/msp they have a sheet in their resources section comparing all the features of most every major RMM [http://rmm.msp.zone/](http://rmm.msp.zone/) here for reference as well.  Also you can go over to [G2](https://www.g2.com/categories/remote-monitoring-management-rmm?tab=easiest_to_use) to see pretty much all the same products and line them up side by side up to 4 at a time, to direct compare features. The cool side of that is each will lily bring other things you need to the table like better patch management, and software compliance. So you win/win.