Windows Server 2016 Restarts

Question

I've recently installed Windows Server 2016 on a custom-built server. The purpose is to provide high performance components to members of my research group to run scientific calculations that take multiple days. In the past three weeks, the server has restarted itself five times, which is unacceptable for our use case. When I log on after a shutdown, a window displays Event ID 41, which says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

I can think of three possible causes:

1. CPU Overheating: We have 24 cores and perform our simulations with a software that is designed to use as many cores as possible. During simulations, CPU use is at 100%. I have watched CPU temperatures during these simulations and they never exceed 50C. However, I do not have a software that logs the temperatures, so I do not know what they are at before a crash.
2. Windows Automatic Updates: Automatic updates are turned off (nominally), yet I still see updates occurring in the event viewer. These are mainly updates to Windows Defender Antivirus, the CPU drivers, and Windows Server itself. Restarts occasionally does occur not long after these updates, but not always. They may be uncorrelated.
3. Crash due to other programs being unable to start: Before almost every unplanned restart, the Event Viewer shows the following programs switch back and forth between the "running" state and the "stopped" state:

• Update Orchestrator Service for Windows Update
• Windows Modules Installer service
• File Server Storage Reports Manager
• Remote Registry Service
• Many others...

Is it possible that while running simulations, there is not enough CPU available to run these properly?

Does anyone know how I may narrow down the cause? I am mainly looking for some direction in eliminating possibilities. If someone has seen this and knows the solution, that is also great. Thanks.

Answer 1

Sounds like an ASR reboot where the BIOS thinks that the OS is no longer responding. Is your firmware up to date? Do you have the appropriate management software tools installed?

Answer 2

Hi,

Your question is beyond the scope of these Forums

This Community is mainly for home users and their computer problems, not business systems.

Kindly post your question in the TechNet Server Forums.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?category=windowsserver

TechNet Forums:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home

MSDN Forums:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home

Cheers.