Restarting services on a server remotely

I’ve run into a few instances where I need to restart haywire services, recently with F-Secure services on Windows 2003 R2 Servers. The high CPU loads make it impossible to log into the server. SC.exe will help with this. Here are a few commands to get your started. Open a command prompt on a server within the same domain as your troubled server and run this command:

Before running the “start” command you’ll want to check to see if the service actually stopped. Do a query like so:

If you want to see more commands, just type “sc” and you’ll see everything available:

K:\>sc
DESCRIPTION:
SC is a command line program used for communicating with the
Service Control Manager and services.
USAGE:
sc <server> [command] [service name] <option1> <option2>…
The option <server> has the form “\\ServerName”
Further help on commands can be obtained by typing: “sc [command]”
Commands:
query———–Queries the status for a service, or
enumerates the status for types of services.
queryex———Queries the extended status for a service, or
enumerates the status for types of services.
start———–Starts a service.
pause———–Sends a PAUSE control request to a service.
interrogate—–Sends an INTERROGATE control request to a service.
continue——–Sends a CONTINUE control request to a service.
stop————Sends a STOP request to a service.
config———-Changes the configuration of a service (persistent)
description—–Changes the description of a service.
failure———Changes the actions taken by a service upon failure
sidtype———Changes the service SID type of a service.
qc————–Queries the configuration information for a service
qdescription—-Queries the description for a service.
qfailure——–Queries the actions taken by a service upon failure
qsidtype——–Queries the service SID type of a service.
delete———-Deletes a service (from the registry).
create———-Creates a service. (adds it to the registry).
control———Sends a control to a service.
sdshow———-Displays a service’s security descriptor.
sdset———–Sets a service’s security descriptor.
showsid———Displays the service SID string corresponding to an
arbitrary name.
GetDisplayName–Gets the DisplayName for a service.
GetKeyName——Gets the ServiceKeyName for a service.
EnumDepend——Enumerates Service Dependencies.

The following commands don’t require a service name:
sc <server> <command> <option>
boot————(ok | bad) Indicates whether the last boot should
be saved as the last-known-good boot configuration
Lock————Locks the Service Database
QueryLock——-Queries the LockStatus for the SCManager Database
EXAMPLE:
sc start MyService

Cheers!