Let me first say I am frustrated beyond reason on my problem
I have three servers that run a web program and all of them have Windows 2008 Standard R2.
Each server performs a certain function. 1. Web server - runs the actual website, 2. Application Server - runs a report application, 3. SQL (2008) which houses the Database.
Every month I perform the Windows updates at night since it is being used heavily during the day.
About 6 months ago whenever I reboot all three servers after updates the Website gets a runtime error. I consulted with the vendor of the program and they said the Database is not fully up and that is why I get the error. So last month I rebooted the SQL server first, waited 20 minutes and then rebooted the other two servers. Sure enough that seemed to work.
Now switch to last night where I did the updates waited 20 minutes for the SQL server and then the other two servers. Now it did not work so I rebooted the Web server and waited 15 minutes and still the website errored. So I rebooted the SQL server waited 20 minutes again and it did not work. So I kept rebooting servers for two hours and could not get the website to work.
I took a break and did something else for 30 minutes. I tried the website again and it worked.
Am I not waiting enough for the servers to connect to each other?
Is there a way I can restart the Database without rebooting the entire server?
Is there a way I can manually force the website to recognize the Database?
I already know how to restart the Website which I did last night without success.
Let me note that I have a different web program with two servers (web and SQL) which comes up quickly with only one reboot and in no specific order.
Let me also note that these three servers I worked on last night are housed 30 miles away and I don't have the ability to shut them down then turn them back on so I limited to restarting them.