Every single computer in your office will run on a network, which is controlled by your server(s), which means you must maintain your server if you want your network and computers to run smoothly.
If you don’t maintain your server you can expect slow performing computers, outdated software causing problems to the day to day operation of the network, server crashes or even complete failures, all of which are a nightmare for a small business owner.
Don’t worry, however, maintaining a server can be easily outsourced to a professional IT company.
If you decide to carry out the maintenance yourself you can follow this checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Server Maintenance Checklist
Always create backups.
Protect your work and databases by performing backups daily so if there is a crash or your system fails you can simply revert back to the previous days data, keeping losses to a minimum.
Clean up your disk space.
If you have any old emails, historic, expired or outdated software that is no longer needed, simply delete it. The rule of thumb is to keep your disk usage below 90%. If it exceeds 90% either delete old data or increase the amount of storage.
Keep your operating system up to date.
You must keep on top of OS updates to ensure your servers run efficiently and effectively. This can be challenging because they change so often. Make it a habit to check for new updates on a regular basis.
Check regularly for application updates.
Just like OS updates your applications must be updated regularly as well. Applications that are not updated are an easy target for hackers so make sure you check for application updates regularly, or create an alert that notifies you when an update is available.
Assess hardware performance.
You should check your hardware logs on a regular basis and keep an eye out for any signs of problems such as network failures, overheating alerts or disk read errors. Any of these could indicate a hardware failure.
Delete old user accounts.
If a member of staff leaves the company make sure you remove their old log in details or account details that are taking up space on the system. The same goes for outdated or expired customer accounts.
Regularly check your server’s security.
A security audit must be carried out on a regular basis to protect your system against potential security threats. Ideally, this should be carried out on a monthly basis.
Server maintenance is a lot of work and requires a lot of specialised knowledge. We highly encourage you to outsource your server maintenance to a third party.
Bean IT provides a thorough server maintenance service. Our fully trained, friendly and professional team of engineers have many years of experience in this area.
We will take care of your servers, while you take care of your business.
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