Welcome to server health! In the All Green Series, I am reviewing each category Limetree Labs looks at for our customer’s IT health. If you missed the other posts, check them out here:
Category 3 – Server Health
The third category we score is Server Health. Server health monitoring provides a comprehensive overview of the status and performance of individual servers. It also includes the monitoring of hardware parameters, external conditions in the server room, and various performance data.
By continually monitoring your network and eliminating problems before they occur, we are able to keep productivity and performance across your network at optimal levels.
Hardware Health
This is your physical server. You know the big metal thing in the closet with a bunch of lights? Yeah, that thing! We check the servers health from systems and logs. Also, we perform a visual health check when we are on site for error lights on equipment. Other checks we do include hardware age and reliability, best practice configuration and security requirements.
OS Health
Your operating system health includes similar checks to the hardware. (Age and reliability, best practices for configuration and security requirements.) In addition, we complete a hypervisor health checklist for every VM Host server.
OS Updates
Every month, the server OS maintenance checklist is completed on every physical and virtual server. Additionally, the hypervisor maintenance checklist is executed on every VM host.
Capacity
Keeping an eye on your server’s capacity is pertinent to avoid any downtime for you and your organization. As a result, each quarter we create a storage forecast report with recommendations for storage change tasks and upgrades.
Fault Tolerance
In the event of a component failure, this ensures your server will continue operating properly until it can be repaired. For this reason, we have a fault tolerance checklist that we complete for every physical server. Then, we schedule and complete all tasks needed to support the system.
I know we’ve gotten into some pretty nitty-gritty IT aspects in this All Green series. Our goal is to give you a high-level cheat sheet to know which questions you should be asking your IT service provider. IT is historically shrouded in mystery and techno-babble used to confuse and intimidate you. We want to empower you to understand the basic IT concepts and give you tools to work with your IT provider.
If your IT service is letting you down or you have more questions, please give us a call today. 208-901-3350. Keep IT fresh!
UPDATE: The next post in the series is up!
