Can't Remote Desktop to server after rebooting via Remote Desktop

When I reboot a Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 server via a Remote Desktop connection, the server comes back up and will not accept any RDP connections: the RDP client errors out with "Connection Refused."

The Terminal Services service is running on the server and restarting it has no effect. No errors are logged on the server.

The only way I've found to fix this is to login at the console or via the DRAC and reboot the machine again, which is an ugly solution for obvious reasons.

Has anyone run into this before?

Solution 1:

Yes, I've run into it on several different servers. Two workarounds have been reliable for me, 1) always use the /admin option of mstsc when starting the session that will initiate the reboot, or 2) use the shutdown command from another server to do the reboot.

Solution 2:

Does the server have multiple NICs? I've had similar issues when terminal services service binds to the wrong one. If that's case, see RDP - Remote Desktop disconnected, Error 2308 socket closed