The database server's message log is a record of all messages recorded by the database server. This is the first place to look if you have server problems, and a good place to check regularly.
This log will have messages in it that look something like the following:
2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG: database system was not properly shut down; automatic recovery in progress 2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG: record with zero length at A/A3478F08 2013-01-29 23:15:41 CET LOG: redo is not required 2013-01-29 23:15:42 CET LOG: database system is ready to accept connections 2013-01-29 23:15:42 CET LOG: autovacuum launcher started
We'll explain some more about these logs once we've located the files.
You'll need to get operating system access to the database system, which is what we call the platform on which the database runs.