5 Ways to Perfect Your Business’ Server Maintenance
While your hardware won’t live forever, there are a few ways to help keep things running smoothly. Regular server maintenance will help keep your technology up-to-date, therefore extending its life (and saving you headaches). Here are 5 ways to help you can maintain your server.
1. Make sure updates are applied routinely
Updating your server on a regular basis is the easiest and most efficient way to keep it running properly. While the frequency of updates depends on your technology, it’s best to check in regularly to ensure you’re keeping up-to-date with the latest software updates.
2. Keep an eye on disk space
Have you noticed your server is running slowly? If yes, there’s a good chance your disk space is running low. Luckily, you can avoid all the problems that come with this by regularly checking your drive. To do this on a PC, go to “My Computer,” right-click on your disk, and press “properties” to reveal how much space you are using and how much space is available.
If you notice that your disk is pretty full, cleaning it up will make your server run much more efficiently. Not sure how to clean your server’s disk space? Consult with an experienced IT provider for guidance.
3. Keep an eye on application behaviors (e.g. are there issues in the logs?)
Your application log can help you keep track of any issues that arise in your server’s applications. Routinely going into these logs and searching for errors will help you detect problems as soon as they arise—not when it’s too late.
4. Make sure that all hardware components are checked routinely to make sure they are functional and properly configured
If you only learn one thing from this article, I hope you take away that regularly monitoring your server’s health is critical to maintaining its stability. Many companies don’t deal with issues until they have escalated when they could have avoided the situation entirely with a routine server maintenance. Don’t wait until something is wrong before you check into your server.
One of the key things to look for is that all hard drives are functioning. There are a range of server configurations, typically referred to as RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks). A RAID setup utilized multiple hard drives to provide quick access to data and a higher level RAID setup will protect data by configuring discs for redundancy. For example, in a RAID 6 setup up to 2 drives can fail without any data loss. Some configurations will lose data if a single drive fails so proactive monitoring is critical. Ask your IT provider about how your business server is setup and learn about the risks if a drive fails.
We typically recommend a RAID 6 or RAID 10 configuration and encourage our customers to buy an extra hard drive (or two if your server is on the older side) to have on hand in case a drive fails. This will ensure that you aren’t waiting for a new drive to come in and putting your data at risk. We also use tools to regularly monitor the health of each hard drive and other server components so we can take care of any business server maintenance proactively.
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5. Track the lifecycle of your server
As previously stated, technology will unfortunately become obsolete with time and use, which means your server will not last forever. Keeping track of its lifecycle will help you plan for updates and replacements.
Server maintenance is a critical aspect of keeping your technology in tip-top shape, and will help you avoid the dreaded downtime. If your business’ technology feels overwhelming to monitor, it’s best to outsource this to an IT consultant. At Onset Solutions, we offer complimentary consultations to best understand your managed services needs. If your business needs assistance with server maintenance or other IT needs, Onset Solutions offers complimentary consultations. Click here to schedule a free consultation today.