SQL Server Restart - Reason

  • Hi there

    We had sql server restarted unexpectedly and i am trying to find the reason. In my experience (I am not DBA) with SQL Server there is one instance in the past with different employer where the server restarted and DBA said it was because of memory pressure. However technical architect said it is not possible for sql server to restart on its own because of memory pressure. We never found the reason at that time but this time i am trying to find out the reason. It is good to start perhaps with error log file and i can see what happened just before restart and after restart. I am trying to interpret the reason and all i can see is memory pressure. Is it possible that because of memory pressure it has restarted? I cant see any specific user. The restart time was exact mid night. 

    I've attached the log file for reference. Updated few names by XXXX or RRRR etc. 

    Thanks.

  • What do the application and system event logs say for around the same time period?

  • I don't think the memory pressure is the cause of the restart. Your error log says:

    2017-12-06 23:59:38.81 spid5s  SQL Server is terminating in response to a 'stop' request from Service Control Manager. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
    2017-12-06 23:59:38.88 spid5s  SQL Trace was stopped due to server shutdown. Trace ID = '1'. This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    SQL Server was stopped due to server shutdown. Have you checked the event logs as anthony.green said to see why the server was shutdown?

  • Attached logs event.

  • That doesn't look good. You didn't mention the cluster. I'm definitely no cluster expert, so I can't tell from the attached logs if the cluster has communication problems or SQL Server made the cluster resource fail. Are you a Windows and/or cluster admin? If not have anyone in your organisation taken a look at it? Perhaps the cluster has more logs?

    Is this happening frequently?

  • I have sys admin permission because i am helping with migration project however i never had admin responsibility. I am not windows admin. I can ask someone to look but i need to guide them about what to do and what to check.

    Regarding frequency, i am told it happened about 2 years ago and it happened about 3-4 times in last 5 years.

  • By the attached logs I see you're running SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server 2003 (R2). Is it on old hardware too? Maybe that's the problem?

    The system and application logs doesn't tell much. The communication errors seems to correlate with the cluster resource failing. Does the cluster have any logs you can look into?

    Judging by the frequency you're experiencing  this problem my recommendation is to start migrating your database environment to newer versions of SQL Server and Windows Server instead.

  • Thanks. Yes it is running SQL 2005 and Windows 2003. I think hardware is 8 years old. Perhaps that is a problem but until we finish migration we just need to continue with current server. I will check with DBA for log files. We are doing migration at the moment.

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