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isync
Asked: 2011-12-22 10:56:05 +0800 CST

Windows Server 2008 R2 + MSSQL Server R2 crashes once a week, suggestions?

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Can someone give me pointers where to look in order to debug why this fresh install of Windows Server 2008 R2 with an untweaked MS SQL-Server R2 which is serving just one ~5GB db to 2 clients crashes once a week?

(All updates applied, no other software running, no other roles. No Hyper-V, running on bare metal. Intel Core i5 660 @ 3,33 Ghz, 16GB RAM, 64bit Windows Server R2)

UPDATE:

I looked into the logs, filtered Windows>System logs for critical and errors only, found (translated into English): ERROR: Service Control Manager; the service "SSPORT" could not be startet, file not found CRITICAL: Kernel-Power

--these are the only severe looking things in this log, possibly unrelated. Nothing in Security logs, and in Application only MSSQL complaining about that it can't connect to the reporting server, right after restart (of which I read in the MS KB that it's normal after restart)

windows windows-server-2008 maintenance server-crashes

4 Answers

  1. Can someone give me pointers where to look

    Check the Event Logs. Log files are the first place any administrator of any device or operating system should look. Twice. Always. Forever. No exceptions.

    Server 2008 offers great filtering features for the event logs, so you can search by criticality, application source, event ID and etc. If you spend a few good hours crunching data, you should be able to recreate the history of crashes and have a great idea of what's going wrong.

    If not, then blame stray alpha particles.

    EDIT

    Of course, I was remiss in delving deeper into the concept of event logs. I focused on the operating system. However, most enterprise-grade hardware also has event logs. If the OS is seemingly unaware of any problem on its hands, and yet the server reset itself, then perhaps you have faulty hardware that's tripping a restart response. I would suggest looking through any hardware logs that may exist for your server.

    For example, in HP hardware that has an ILO card, you can sift through hardware logs for any events that might have occurred. Perhaps there was some PSU problem.

    Going backwords even further, perhaps there was an issue with the PDU that your server is plugged into. Sort through those logs to see if there was some kind of power cycle that was tripped.

    Trace the problem back from a top down perspective. Application -> Services -> Operating System -> Server Hardware -> Power Distribution. Each link in that chain will likely have some reporting mechanism that you can sift through to see a history of what has happened.

    EDIT 2

    Egads! I am a fool's fool! I left out the other most important place to look. When picking up the pieces after an OS crash, memory dumps are can lead you to the scene of the crime, the motive and the murder weapon. Once you learn how to analyze Windows crash dump files, you'll be a master detective.

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  2. Best Answer

    CRITICAL: Kernel-Power

    This sounds like a hardware issue. Try replacing the power supply. It could be something else, as well (weak capacitor on the motherboard?), but the power supply will be the easiest (and cheapest) place to start.

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  3. To address this issue, Microsoft has published a knowledge base (KB) article:

    Windows Kernel event ID 41 error in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first".

    Click the following link to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504

    Anyway it's looks like a 100% hardware problem. Could you please post your hardware configuration to check... Accoring to Google there are so many possible hardware related reasons of this error: from MB/CPU/video card incompatibility to BIOS settings or buggy old device drivers (HD audio and so on)

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  4. I'm not sure if you've found the answer yet but I've had the same problem. Windows Server 2008 R2 keeps restarting roughly the same time once a week. I noticed it was happening a bit earlier each time but couldn't figure out why, until i stumbled upon an error message in the deepest dredges of the event log. Not in the administration area or the main ones, security etc. but under this area. Event Viewer -> Application and Services Logs -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Server Infrastructure Licensing -> Operational -> Look for ones right after the server is started back up in my case it was 9:18 AM that it shut down. Look for one of the first errors after startup, it should mention something in the general tab about it having a configuration issue and needing to be a domain controller. From there look at the error next in line, it should say something about the domain controller check not meeting certain licensing policy conditions, and that if it's not fixed the system will automatically shutdown in 6 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes. almost a week later.

    I really hope this helps your situation, I was at a lost for the past 3 weeks because of this.

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