Who shut my Windows 2012 server down?

Problem

Windows 2012 R2 server shut down. You need to find who shut it down immediately

 

Cause

User with elevated privileges shut down by “accident“.

 

Solution
Log into the server, open event manager (go to run command and type eventvwr and click ok)
Click on the system logs, right click and choose filter current log.

Screen Shot 2016-05-05 at 11.09.06 AM

Type 1074 in the event id section and click ok

Screen Shot 2016-05-05 at 11.10.29 AM

From the log determine which user performed the shutdown e.g.:

The process C:\Windows\system32\winlogon.exe (ServerName) has initiated the restart of computer ServerName on behalf of user YourDomain\thatcrazyuser for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found
Shutdown Type: power off

You may also note that the shutdown type could be “restarted

 

Tested Platform

Windows 2012 Server R2

Hits: 130

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