Need to find out exact crash time

  • Yesterday our server has crashed and I need to find out exact time. In other words, since when SQL Server has become unresponsive.

    SQL Server archive log does not give precise timing, it has a series of records with "BEGIN STAK DUMP", but there are dozens of records after that event up to the end of archive spanning about 6 min. What is the best way to determine this?

    Thanks

  • A "crash" is a series of events, not a single moment in time. You need to know an ideal point in time for which to perform a transaction log restore?

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • No, I don't need to restore transaction log, we just bounced the server and that was all.

    I need to find a point in time since when the users were stopped to make any connections to the server.

    This time, along with last_startup_time from sys.dm_server_services (but this is easy one), will give us the down time. This is required by our management.

  • you can try looking in the Event Viewer at the System Windows Log, and look for items with a Source starting with Kernel

  • Thanks, I think I found it. There are 4 entries "Kernel-Boot" in Source, all with same timestamp (without milliseconds). One of them has "The last shutdown's success status was true. The last boot's success status was true.". I hope this is the one?

  • I am pretty sure that you will find a critical error in the Windows Application Log for SQL Server.

  • SQL Guy 1 (12/15/2016)


    Yesterday our server has crashed and I need to find out exact time. In other words, since when SQL Server has become unresponsive

    That's probably not going to be logged. SQL will log all the errors it encountered, but it won't be able to note the exact instance new connections stopped being made. Logging the date of the first error in the series is probably best, thought it will give you the largest 'downtime' number, and some people may have still been able to connect during that period.

    One of them has "The last shutdown's success status was true. The last boot's success status was true.". I hope this is the one?

    That looks like a startup message, server probably. Definitely not when the problem started.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

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