12 Point Server Maintenance Checklist
Server Maintenance Checklist:
Servers are wonderful things.They hum on 24/7, typically while not issue, however like several machines they are doing need some maintenance.
Straightforward maintenance on server and observance will usually stop a server failure from turning into a server disaster. For example, I’ve had an individual decision during a panic that their server has crashed. we tend to begin to analyze to see that their RAID was unsuccessful last year, their backups stopped 3 months past and their disk reached 100 capacity, corrupting their database.
If you employ our managed services, you don’t need to worry regarding these things. We tend to monitor, review and maintain things 24/7, however if you’re managing your own server, here are twelve things that ought to be a part of your server maintenance checklist.
12 Server Maintenance Tips:
1. Verify your backups are working:
Before creating any changes to your production system, make certain that your backups are working. you’ll even wish to run some check recoveries if you are about to delete important data. whereas centered on backups, you may want to form sure you’ve got selected the correct backup location.
2. Check disk usage:
Don’t use your production system as an Associate in Nursing repository system. Delete recent logs, emails, and code versions now not used. Keeping your system freed from old software limits security issues. A smaller knowledge footprint means quicker recovery. If your usage is surpassing 90% of disk capacity, either scale back usage or add additional storage. If your partition reaches 100%, your server might stop responding, information tables will corrupt and data could also be lost.
3. Monitor RAID Alarms:
All production servers should use RAID. in addition, you must observe your RAID status. In our decade and in business, we have worked on myriad systems wherever the RAID failed. As a result, one disk failure caused a whole system failure. At rackAID, we tend to either use suppliers that monitor our RAID for us or we’ve got to set up direct RAID monitoring. Roughly I estimate that RAID fails in regarding 1% of servers per year. hundredth could seem small, however a complete server failure will flip a straightforward drive replacement into a multi-hour disaster recovery scenario.
4. Update Your OS:
Updates for UNIX systems are free frequently. Staying on high of those updates can be challenging. This can be why we tend to Americae machine-controlled patch management tools and have observance in situ to alert us once a system is out of date. If you change your server manually (or not at all), you’ll miss vital security updates. Hackers often scan for vulnerable systems inside hours of a problem being disclosed. Therefore, a fast response is key. If you can’t change your updates, then produce a schedule to update your system. I like to recommend weekly at a minimum for current versions and maybe monthly for older OS versions. I would conjointly monitor unleash notices from your distribution so you’re responsive to any major security threats and may respond quickly.
5. Update your management Panel:
If you are employing a hosting or server panel, make certain to update it as well. generally this implies change not solely the control panel itself, however also code it controls. For example, with WHM/cPanel, you need to manually update PHP versions to repair famous issues. merely updating the control panel doesn’t also update the underlying Apache and PHP versions utilized by your OS.
6. Check application updates:
Web applications account for quite 95% of all security breaches we tend to investigate. make certain to update your internet applications, particularly widespread programs like WordPress.
7. Check remote management tools:
If your server is co-located or with a fanatical server provider, you may want to envision that your remote management tools work. Remote console, remote boot and rescue mode are what I decide are the three essential tools for remote server management. you would like to grasp that these will work once you would like them.
8. Check for hardware errors:
You’ll want to review the logs for any signs of hardware problems. heating notices, disk browse errors, network failures may well be early indicators of potential hardware failure. These are rare however value a look, particularly if the system has not been operating inside traditional ranges.
9. Check server utilization:
Review your server’s disk, CPU, RAM and network utilization. If you’re nearing limits, you’ll have to set up on adding resources to your server or migrating to a brand new one. If you are not employing a performance observance tool, you’ll install sysstat on most UNIX servers. This can give you some baseline performance knowledge.
10. Review user accounts:
If you’ve had worker changes, consumer cancellations or alternative user changes, you may wish to get rid of these users from your system. Storing recent sites and users is each a security and legal risk. reckoning on your service contracts, you’ll not have the correct to retain a client’s data when they need terminated services.
11. Modifying passwords:
I like to recommend ever-changing passwords each half dozen to twelve months, particularly if you have given out passwords to others for maintenance.
12. Check system security:
I counsel a periodic review of your server’s security employing a remote auditing tool akin to Nessus. Regular security audits function a check on system configuration, OS updates and alternative potential security risks. I counsel this a minimum of four times a year and ideally monthly. Also, you’ll wish to return the ten immutable laws of security administration.
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