diff --git a/playbooks/tasks/include/upgrade-server.yml b/playbooks/tasks/include/upgrade-server.yml
index 5c26931734ee694c0a1acf0926826cea3527edeb..41e77ab5d725a907de2d017a6a371941631c833d 100644
--- a/playbooks/tasks/include/upgrade-server.yml
+++ b/playbooks/tasks/include/upgrade-server.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,18 @@
     upgrade: yes
   register: pacman_upgrade
 
+- name: check for running builds
+  block:
+    - name: list systemd-nspawn processes
+      command: pgrep -x systemd-nspawn
+      register: pgrep_systemd_nspawn
+      ignore_errors: true
+
+    - name: stop without rebooting
+      meta: end_host
+      when: pgrep_systemd_nspawn is succeeded
+  when: "'buildservers' in group_names"
+
 - name: wait for svntogit to finish
   wait_for:
     path: /srv/svntogit/update-repos.sh.lock