Researching the Cause of a Windows Server Crash

From Ubiquity Server Wiki

Server crashes can occur for a virtually infinite number of reasons, due to file corruption, server administration variables, out of control scripts, the result of exploited software, and potentially failing hardware to name just a few. In the event that your server is becoming completely unreachable on a regular basis, a responsible systems administrator will want to closely examine the server's configuration.

Examining the Events

• The first thing you will want to check following a Windows server crash is the Event Viewer, which will often give indications as to the cause
  • To do this, navigate to Administrator Tools -> Event Viewer (System)
• If you don't know the meaning of the errors presented, you should search Google for the error and examine a variety of sources for accurate assistance from other sysadmins
• If continued problems occur, ask a tech to examine and record the data at the console of your server following the crash rather than just remotely rebooting.

Possible Solutions for Continued Instability

Sometimes a crash just plain won't give a clear error. If no obvious solutions present themselves at a systems administration level, and problems persist for an extended period of time, a few options are possible..

• Our staff will always run hardware diagnostics checks for you if requested using MemTest and PCTools hard disk checks
  • This process will generally definitively diagnose if hardware problems do exist and where, and generally take 1-2 hours to complete
• Sometimes a fresh re-install on a problematic server configuration is the only cure for operating system instability