Possibly you may not be experiencing an issue applying your patches, but an issue with your VMware when rebooting (which generally only happens when they are patched so it misleads you into thinking it is a patching issue).
Windows 2012 VMs sometime hang on the boot splash screen (the "spinning dots" screen) when rebooting. See http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2092807 for detailed description of the issue. If this is your problem you are having, the fix is to modify the VM config (.VMX) file and add the advanced property "monitor_control.enable_softResetClearTSC = TRUE". Unfortunately the VM has to be powered off to set this through the vCentre interface. However, VMware have provided a Powershell script to implement this change to the VMX files while the VM is running (it only becomes effective once the server power is completely reset). This script is in the article quoted above. Hope this helps Regards Trevor From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles F Sullivan Sent: 22 May 2017 20:10 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Long time for reboot after May patching EXTERNAL So after 7 plus hours the spinning beads began to make me dizzy. I powered off the VM, powered it on and checked. All of the patches installed successfully. There was absolutely no mention of badness in the Event Logs. No unexpected shutdown or dump file. There was a gap in all of the logs from 7:21 to 14:23. The last one in the System Log was, as expected, “The system is shutting down at 7:21”. It’s as if the server wasn’t really running even though it also wasn’t shut down. None of this surprises me much, but it’s a critical server so I didn’t want to take a chance. It runs a parking revenue application, but today is commencement day so they left the arms up on the parking machines. Thus I had all day to get it done. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Susan E Bradley Sent: Monday, May 22, 2017 1:14 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Long time for reboot after May patching There was a servicing stack update that unless you hit control-alt-delete it would sit there. I would ask myself... self? Do I have a good backup? If I answered yes I would hit a hard reset and see what happens. On 5/22/2017 9:45 AM, Charles F Sullivan wrote: I have a Windows 2012 R2 server that rebooted over 4 hours ago to complete patching and it’s still showing the spinning wheel and the Windows logo. I had 3 others made from the same image that had no issues at all. These are all WMware VMs. I’m not sure if this is the shutdown or startup phase, but I’m guessing startup. Hitting ctrl, alt, del (technically ctrl, alt, insert in the WMware Console) did no good. (I don’t think this is quite the state where that problem applies.) Because there is no network connectivity I feel pretty helpless since I can’t check logs, stop services or send a reboot command. Has anyone else seen this? If so, how long did you wait before you powered off? Or did you not have to? I saw at least one post on the Patch Management list where someone else had the same problem after the May patches. His server came back on its own eventually, but I don’t think it took 4 plus hours. The application is not in use today, which is why they chose it as the patching day, so I probably have another 2 hours before I have no choice but to power off. Thanks. This email was sent from outside the GKN Aerospace network. Please ensure that you verify the source of the message is legitimate before taking action on it. Suspicious emails can be sent to:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> or your IT Service Desk can provide further guidance. 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