Avoid Windows Server 2003 reboots with hotpatching
Takeaway: Throwing a Windows server off track isn't as easy as it used to be, but patching a Windows Server 2003 can still often require a reboot. Save yourself trouble and time by stopping processes with hotpatching.
In the early days, it seemed like breathing on a Windows server resulted in the need for an administrator to reboot the server. Over the years, Microsoft has made great strides in reducing the number of reboots necessary to manage a Windows server, including Windows Server 2003. However, patching a Windows server can still result in a required reboot, thus dashing the "the five nines" goal of many organizations (i.e., 99.999 percent availability). Enter hotpatching.
Although hotpatching will not completely eliminate server reboots, the services provide a mechanism to update system files without rebooting and without stopping services and processes. Hotpatching has some limitations, which include:
- Hotpatching currently works only on 32-bit versions of Windows.
- Hotpatching has some compatibility issues with some non-Microsoft applications. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 922612 for more information.
A hotpatch contains two versions of an update -- what Microsoft calls a "cold patch" and a "hot patch" bits. You can hotpatch a file by following this three-step process:
- The coldpatch portion of the update replaces the old binary file.
- The hotpatch portion of the update is then loaded into the image of the defective binary file.
- An instruction above the defective function is inserted, which redirects subsequent calls to the updated function.
Users can obtain hotpatch-enabled update packages from Microsoft's Download Center. For more information about hotpatching, visit Microsoft's TechNet site.
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