There are some questions addressed to us, concerning why a VPS sometimes restarts or is being restarted or doing the restart by itself without us knowing it, where the last question (without us knowing it) is the most interesting one.
In some occasions, this question appears frequently due to the suggestion (feeling) that “as if” the VPS is not as it was being used previously and disconnected, or in other words; the VPS is not in a condition as it was supposed to be.
To make sure and to validate this assumption, the only possible way to check if the VPS has restarted or not, either deliberately or unintentionally, is by viewing the internet connection duration on the VPS (uptime status). How to do it: click Start >> Control Panel >> Network Connection >> right-click LAN >> Properties. At the Connection Tab, view the Duration section. Here, we can find out the latest VPS starting time.
Then, what actually caused the VPS to REBOOT? Surely there are some reasons, with the most common ones (including their solutions) are as follow:
- Deliberately done or not, by someone who knows the access password to the VPS, or also access to the VPS Control Panel (SolusVM, Virtualizor, OnApp, etc.).
- Being done intentionally, by someone who is doing an “improper act” (hacking or cracking) to be able to access into the VPS. Make sure that you are the only one that have access to the VPS password and create one using an unpredictable phrase, at least by a combination of capital letters and/or numbers.
- Malware, trojan, worm, virus and other “odd destructive files”, that can create problems to our PC/laptop, on a VPS can also consume the Windows resources and restart the VPS. Make sure only to place important files into the VPS and never perform any browsing activities on it to avoid such things.
- The programs which are consuming the memory excessively (large), and running continuously (not only when the program was firstly initiated) in a long period of time, will drain the Windows resources. Typically, Windows will initially stop the add-on services, followed by turning off the main routines, and in the end, when the memory is no longer sufficient (110% over the quota), the Windows will be experiencing the HANG condition, or more commonly known as the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), resulting the VPS or the computer which is using a Windows OS will restart by itself. Make sure that you know exactly the VPS memory capacity and only run programs which are suitable to that capacity. Another option that is not recommended is by creating a Virtual Disk (shadow memory in the hard drive). However, by using this method (virtual disk), a risk will appear. The VPS may not restart, but it will still experience the Hang condition or cannot be accessed in any way, even could result to corrupted files and a system crash (missing data), if there is a bottleneck condition exists in the server’s (I/O) hard drive, or for some other reasons originating from the server where the VPS is operating.
- The server is restarted. A server has full control over a VPS. If it is being restarted, then, for sure, all VPS operations will also be restarted.
Of the five causes and solutions mentioned above, the only way to determine which one of them is really the cause, is by viewing the LOG in the VPS (Windows).
How to do it: click Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Event Viewer.
Or you can also check it from Client Area with our Reboot Log features