[dba-Tech] Unexpected server shutdowns

Hello -

I'm the IT department for a small internet based company in Wisconsin.  My
background is largely in Access database development, but the job of overall
IT administration has fallen on me because I'm the most computer proficient
of anyone here.  Please be patient with me if my ignorance of network and
hardware issues is glaringly obvious.

We bought an HP Proliant server in December to replace the pitiful Windows
XP workstation we had set up as a 'server'.  It's running SBS 2008...and
we've experienced at least a dozen unexpected shutdowns since it's been in
place.  At first we thought it was due to trying to run nightly backups with
insufficient ram - the initial setup had 4G, and we were running on 0 Mg
free.  But we installed an additional 8G of ram 2 weeks ago, and  had
another unexpected shutdown yesterday in the middle of the working day.

Does anyone have any insights for me about what could be behind this?  Our
network consultants have spent hours researching it and have not turned up
anything yet other than 'maybe it's a defective motherboard'.  Since they
have another client with the same machine who is experiencing the same
problem, they'll be replacing the motherboard on that one and letting us
know if it cures the problem.

In the meantime, any suggestions will be appreciated!

Janet Erbach
IT Administrator
www.naturalhealthyconcepts.com



P.S.  We're using an APC unit for UPS...I mention it because I read an older
link today that linked some unexpected server shutdowns to APC Powerchute.