Why Does My Server Need Periodic Maintenance?...Servers just run, right? You hardly ever look at it, shut it down or reboot it.
You probably don’t give it a second thought as you walk out of the building for
the night. Out of sight, out of mind…until it goes down… Many businesses have
servers on their network and it’s true, you really don’t think about it until
it starts to give you a reason to. Usually a client finds out that they have a
problem with their server when it ceases to function. Your phone starts ringing
and people are coming to your office complaining that they can’t perform their
work. The server is down and you have twenty five people who depend on that machine
to perform their day to day duties trying to remember how they did their job with
paper before you had a server. Could this have been avoided? In most cases, it
could have, with a proper maintenance plan.
Most business class servers have “fail-safe” features built into them. These
hardware enhancements make a server “fault tolerant.” What this means is that
critical, but failure prone devices like disks and power supplies are installed
in a redundant configuration so that a one component failure will not take the
server down. Rather, the server keeps running but starts logging errors that tell
the administrator that a component has failed and needs replacement. Examples
of fail-safe configurations are mirrored disk drives where a server would have
two disks that are a mirror image of each other. In the event of a failure of
one disk, the system will keep running on the other member disk until the failed
disk can be replaced. Once the failed disk is replaced, the mirror is reestablished
and resumes its fault tolerant status. Redundant power supplies work in much the
same manner.
The key to attaining maximum server uptime is monitoring the operational status
of these fault tolerant features. In the last year, we found four clients that
had one disk failures in their fault tolerant disk systems during a regular bi-monthly
or monthly maintenance cycle visit. We replaced the failed disk and restored the
mirror configuration during off business hours. Had these clients not been on
a regular maintenance interval, the degraded condition would not have been detected
until the unfortunate failure of the functioning member disk. In this case we
would have had to re-install the operating system, all the application software,
and restore the client’s data from the backup, resulting in one to two days of
downtime.
This is just one example of the systems that are verified on a periodic maintenance
visit. We examine all of the server logs, backup subsystem logs, AntiVirus subsystem
logs, e-mail server logs, monitor disk free/used space, memory usage and any
other systems or devices that are critical to ensure maximum server uptime. If
your business uses a server, call us to inquire about our periodic maintenance
plans. The cost of prevention is a fraction of the cost of a day of downtime.
End of Support for Windows 98 and Windows ME...As part of the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy, Microsoft will discontinue Extended
Support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows ME on June 30,
2006. Microsoft will retire public and technical support, including security
updates, by this date. If you are using any of these operating systems, you should
plan to upgrade your operating system to a newer version of Windows. This is very
important from a security standpoint. It is also wise to note that application
software vendors that have not already discontinued support for these operating
systems, will surely do so after this date.
Quotes of the Day…
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists
to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable
man."
-- George Bernard Shaw
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
-- Groucho Marx
WindowsXP Service Pack 3…Many Microsoft experts were thinking XP Service Pack 3 would be released late
2007. Microsoft has released WindowsXP Service Pack 3 to manufacturing the week
of April 21st. Look for it on their website soon. Here is the Microsoft link if
you would like to see the current O/S lifecycle support release info: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx
Please Do Your Backups…Please? We usually do not have to ask customers and clients that have lost their data
in a hard drive failure to backup their data on a regular basis. They have already
“felt the pain.” One of the most difficult situations that we, as a service company
have to deal with is informing a customer that their data is lost and we cannot
recover it. There is really no reason, with all of the low cost devices that are
on the market today, not to backup your data. We will not quote a server without
some type of backup device and we are still partial to tape for a server application.
Even though tape has a higher initial cost, tape is still the lowest cost per
gigabyte for backup and archiving and gives you the versatility of being able
to easily (and preferably) take the backup off-site. However, if your budget
does not permit the use of tape as a backup medium, consider an external USB hard
drive. These have some drawbacks as a daily backup device but are surely better
than no backup at all. If you have any questions regarding your backup strategy,
please call us for a consult. The National Archives and Records Administration
in Washington D.C. has published that 93% of companies that lost their data center
for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within 1 year of the
disaster.
TTI Is Now a Member of the Western Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau…We are proud to be members of the Western Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau.
By joining the BBB we affirm our dedication to earning and keeping the trust of
our clients and delivering exceptional customer service.
