Exchange 2003 SP2 Faster Reboots

Leave it to Microsoft to brag about how fast a server can reboot. 🙂 Joke aside, this doesn't seem to be news at all but it has come in my inbox about 50 times over the past few days so here is the summary. Famous Microsoft MVP, Daniel Petri, has produced a knowledge base article 555526 which basically explains that Exchange 2003 SP2 will reboot faster on a domain controller (read: SBS, if you're running Exchange on a DC in any other setup you need help) because Windows will notify Exchange that the box is about to shut down and Exchange services are shut down prior to Windows services (Active Directory) are shut down. This will automatically make your reboots faster. The news here is that Microsoft finally implemented a process that has been used in production servers for years. I have yet to see a production server where Exchange was allowed to shut down on its own – there is always a script that stops Exchange services and then calls for the box shutdown. So if you were freaked out by the reboot performance enhancement and the subsequent KB article, welcome to Exchange system administration 🙂