Introduction
Server maintenance should be an important consideration when choosing your server and hosting provider. When you’re in the market for a server, you’re mainly focused on prices, storage volumes, and technicalities. You might opt for something your IT department can manage, which means your purchase decision will largely be influenced by their recommendations. Or you may seek a server that has its own maintenance regime, if you don’t have the capacity to do it yourself. Whether your server is physical or virtual, in-house or outsourced, cloud-based or open source, maintenance keeps your data safe. It extends the life of the server and minimises your long-term expenses. Let’s go over some key maintenance steps.
Server maintenance 101: consistent updates
Your server maintenance regime needs to keep up with all the latest technological advances. Hackers are consistently upgrading their skills in sabotage and digital espionage. This means your phish-proof data may now be vulnerable. To stay ahead of potentially malicious cyber-threats, keep all your systems up to date.
- Routinely review your passwords, software, operating systems, control panels, firewalls, and even the server itself.
- Check how much storage is available and declutter unnecessary files.
- Programme automated back-ups, and confirm that they’re actually being done at least once a week.
- You should also routinely troubleshoot for errors in hardware and software. Spot them pro-actively to minimise repair costs.
- Periodically prune users and adjust outdated IDs in the database e.g. hires and fires.
Validate your RAID
Validating your RAID is also a key part of server maintenance. Redundancy Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is an essential system for every server. It’s kind of a back-up to your back-up, ensuring optimised uptime. Review it regularly to ensure it’s in good working order. It should have an alarm system with emergency notifications. Cross-check that they’re active, and that all the right measures are in place. RAID fails in 1% of servers every year, and if you don’t confirm it’s up and running, you may not know when that percentile reaches out and touches your organisation. Are you ticking off the server maintenance checklist? For your server maintenance and organisational needs, call Cloud.co.za today.
