Businesses of all industries and sizes rely heavily on server infrastructure to operate efficiently and deliver client services. Therefore, robust server management and support are essential. Our server maintenance checklist breaks down how to keep your IT server in top condition and extend its useful lifecycle.
Use our server maintenance tips and best practices to help prevent downtime, enhance performance and security, and reduce costs long-term.
What is server maintenance?
Server maintenance refers to systematic and regular tasks that ensure the optimal performance, reliability, and security of server infrastructure.
Server management and support comprise a range of activities, including:
- hardware diagnostics
- software updates
- security audits
- data backups
- resource usage tracking
What is a server?
To understand why server maintenance is so crucial to businesses, we need to know what a server is and what role it plays in a data center.
Servers process data, manage access to resources and respond to client requests.
Essentially, servers are the brain of an IT infrastructure, allowing businesses to:
- Store and share data securely
- Run business applications and services
- Control and manage user access
- Collaborate efficiently on shared resources
With the increasing complexity of digital infrastructures, and companies’ growing reliance on data to drive growth, maintaining your server is good condition has become more crucial than ever.
Types of server maintenance
Your server may need different types of support and maintenance services, or a combination, depending on its situation. Here is a quick recap of the different types of hardware maintenance:
| Type of maintenance | What is it? |
|---|---|
| Corrective | This identifies and resolves existing problems. The aim is to contain the issue, minimize downtime and restore the server to full working order. |
| Preventive | Through regular inspections, repairs and part-replacements, IT teams keep an IT infrastructure in good condition and avoid issues before they occur. |
| Predictive | Analytical tools and AI monitor systems in real time and predict problems before they happen. They also indicate the cause of any anomalies and resolve where possible. |
While predictive maintenance is effective, it also requires significant initial investment. For many companies, a combination of preventive and corrective maintenance is sufficient. Check out our industry guide What is corrective maintenance? to learn more.
Why is regular server maintenance critical for businesses?
Keeping a server room and its equipment running smoothly minimizes the risks of:
- server crashes
- complete operating system failure and downtime
- data corruption or loss
- overheating and permanent hardware degradation
Negligence can have potentially severe consequences for an enterprise’s business operations. To avoid such scenarios, let us explore the importance of server maintenance in more detail.
Did you know maintenance can save businesses costs?
Find out how one business avoided expensive server replacements by leveraging post-OEM support.
Read case study
Preventing downtime
One of the worst nightmares of any business is downtime. Even a brief period of server absence can lead to significant financial losses and severe brand reputation damage. Performing regular inspections and diagnostics helps to identify and address potential issues before they escalate.
Monitoring the performance of their servers helps companies ensure maximum uptime for their business without unexpected disruptions.
Enhancing security
Security breaches and data leaks are becoming increasingly common, and servers are prime targets for cyberattacks. Server malware can help attackers:
- Steal and leak data
- Execute ransomware attacks
- Commit identity theft
- Disrupt services and operations
A well-maintained server is less vulnerable to security breaches. Up-to-date security patches and robust security configurations keep servers safe and robust.
Meanwhile, regularly checking system security to identify and address potential risks helps businesses protect their sensitive data and maintain clients’ and partners’ trust.
Extending equipment life span
Servers are expensive. As a result, companies need to maximize their return on that investment.
Expert maintenance can help identify and rectify hardware issues early, reducing the risk of hardware failure.
Regularly monitoring server usage and performance can optimize its reliability and extend its lifetime.
Ensuring optimal server performance
Businesses rely on server-dependent applications and managed services to fulfil the requests of their clients. This means servers must perform efficiently and effectively to keep internal and external operations running smoothly.
A well-maintained server operates at peak efficiency and with maximum availability, ensuring that applications run smoothly. As a result, performance optimization boosts productivity, reduces bottlenecks and downtime risks, and allows users to enjoy a seamless experience.
Compliance requirements
Industries and organizations are subject to regulatory obligations regarding data security and availability.
Robust IT support and maintenance services help businesses to meet such obligations by ensuring the operation systems are up-to-date and secure.
Key takeaway: Strong server management and maintenance helps to:
- Prevent downtime
- Avoid security issues
- Extend hardware lifecycle
- Maximize performance
- Comply with industrial regulations
Server maintenance checklist: step-by-step
Our in-depth checklist is here to help you keep your IT servers efficient, secure and available at all times.
If you are short on time or just need a reminder, we also have a cheat sheet of the maintenance process at the end.
The best practices to keep servers dependable, secure, and efficient, are:
Software updates
- Regularly scan for and download available updates and critical software patches.
- Ensure operating system updates, third-party applications, web applications and hosting control panels are kept up to date.
- Where possible, use automated patch management tools and implement alerts for outdated systems.
This helps address security weaknesses and improve system stability.
Check system configuration
Review server configurations to ensure they align with security policies and performance requirements. Confirm that system parameters are correctly set and optimized.
Proper configuration reduces vulnerabilities, improves efficiency, and ensures compliance with internal policies.
Hardware diagnostics
- Regularly check hardware status and use automated monitoring utilities to identify potential hardware errors.
- Where possible, use remote management tools to monitor and manage servers without requiring physical access.
- Monitor RAID status and disk health to ensure storage redundancy is functioning correctly and to prevent data loss from drive failures.
- Review system logs for hardware-related warnings such as disk read errors, memory faults, or network failures.
Early detection of hardware or disk failures can contain issues before they spread, preventing data loss and unexpected downtime.
Security audits
- Review user accounts and access controls.
- Examine folder and file permissions.
- Maintain up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware protection.
- Enforce strong password policies and periodic credential rotation.
- Use vulnerability scanning tools to identify security gaps.
These measures help to strengthen system security, reduce opportunities for cyberattacks and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access. Check out our blog to learn more about cybersecurity considerations during maintenance.
Data backups
- Perform regular comprehensive backups.
- Verify backups and test restoration procedures.
- Maintain cloud or offsite backup copies, such as on tape libraries, where appropriate.
- Take backups before major system changes.
Regularly backing up data ensures critical information can be recovered quickly in the event of system failure, corruption, or cyberattack. You can also back up systems with Disaster Recovery as a Service.
Backing up your data is critical
Find out how Evernex’s Back-up as a ServiceTM can guarantee the security and availability of your business data.
Performance and resource monitoring
Use automated system monitoring utilities to track
- CPU usage and overall performance
- network traffic
- RAM and disk usage
Configure automated alerts for abnormal spikes or capacity thresholds. This helps to prevent overload, maintain server performance and support capacity planning.
Network management and utilization
Monitor network usage and performance to ensure that the server can manage current and future demands. Keeping an eye on your network’s performance contributes to preventing bottlenecks and maintaining uptime. To find out how to perform network maintenance, check out our step-by-step network maintenance checklist. You can also explore our complete guide to network optimization to get the best out of your network at every moment.
System redundancy
Ensure adequate redundancy of critical components, including:
- RAID storage power supplies
- network connections
- failover systems
This allows your infrastructure to continue functioning even if a component fails and minimizes service disruption.
Disaster recovery planning
Test backup restoration regularly to guarantee that you can recover your data. Maintain a documented disaster recovery plan including failover servers and processes.
Regularly review and update recovery procedures to reflect infrastructure or business changes.
Log management
- Centralize log files and regularly review them for anomalies, failed login attempts, and hardware/software warnings.
- Implement automated alerting tied to log patterns to detect issues early.
- Review logs for evidence of unauthorized access attempts or suspicious activity.
Log rotation and retention policies prevent excessive disk usage and maintain system performance, while consistent monitoring detects security threats early.
Data lifecycle management
Archive or securely remove outdated logs, emails, unused accounts, and legacy software versions.
Regular data management and the elimination of unused information:
- reduces storage costs
- improves performance
- lowers security risk
Server room maintenance
The server room environment is an undervalued but crucial aspect of maintaining your enterprise server. We advise the following for maintaining an optimal environment for servers:
- Temperature control: Servers generate a lot of waste heat. Keeping the server room temperature within the recommended range is vital, as overheating is a primary cause of server failure.
- Dust and debris: Clean the server room to prevent dust and debris in or around the server hardware. Dirt and dust clog ventilators in IT equipment, leading to overheating.
Assign tasks
To ensure nothing gets overlooked, assign clear responsibilities to your staff. Creating a task calendar and documenting procedures helps with consistency and monitoring any changes.
Server maintenance checklist: Cheat sheet
Use this cheat sheet checklist as a reminder and tick off the tasks as you go!:
| Step | Checked? |
|---|---|
| Software updates | 🟩 |
| Check system configuration | 🟩 |
| Hardware diagnostics | 🟩 |
| Security audits | 🟩 |
| Back up data | 🟩 |
| Use monitoring tools | 🟩 |
| Monitor network usage | 🟩 |
| System redundancy | 🟩 |
| Disaster recovery planning | 🟩 |
| Log management | 🟩 |
| Data lifecycle management | 🟩 |
| Control server room temperature | 🟩 |
| Keep server room clean with good airflow | 🟩 |
| Repair or replace faulty parts | 🟩 |
| Assign tasks | 🟩 |
How to Plan a Server Maintenance Schedule
Frequency
You don’t need to execute all the tasks on the list everyday, or all at the same time. The first step to creating an effective maintenance schedule is to log how frequently to perform each task. For example:
| Frequency | Tasks |
|---|---|
| Daily/Continuous |
|
| Weekly |
|
| Monthly |
|
| Quarterly / As Needed |
|
How do professional IT services support my server?
Businesses can choose to manage server support in-house. However, this may be difficult to execute in practice. Server maintenance complexity often depends on the underlying architecture. While approaches such as converged infrastructure (CI) designed to make ongoing management more efficient, it is often advisable to hire professionals with the expertise and experience to manage such complex tasks.
Third-party maintenance experts efficiently identify and resolve server issues. They can also implement preventive maintenance measures and ensure that a server operates at its best.
TPM providers expertly execute server support and general IT lifecycle management tasks and work to keep your entire system protected.
Here are some of the key reasons to outsource your server support tasks to a certified professional:
- Expertise:Professionals have the knowledge and experience to effectively address server issues, implementing industrial best practices.
- Efficiency: Professionals have the tools and resources to conduct maintenance tasks quickly and efficiently. This reduces the risk of extended downtime.
- Time and resource savings: Server maintenance can be time-consuming and resource intensive. Outsourcing allows your in-house IT team to focus on other strategic projects and core business activities.
- Preventive measures: Professionals are proactive and skilled at preventive maintenance. They identify potential issues before they become critical, minimizing the risk of downtime or data loss.
- Compliance assurance: Professional maintenance providers ensure that your server infrastructure meets regulatory standards, such as those related to data security.
- Reliability: Choose a trusted server maintenance provider like Evernex to gain access to reliable replacement parts and support services. This ensures that your server remains dependable.
How does part-replacement fit into server maintenance?
If server hardware fails, obtaining reliable replacement parts quickly is essential. Efficient replacement:
- minimizes downtime
- avoids the potential security risks posed by an outage
- reduces the probability of wider system failures
Working with a trusted IT service provider like Evernex gives businesses direct access to high-quality refurbished spare parts. Such services minimizes downtime and ensures server reliability. Evernex’s Spare-as-a-ServiceTM offering provides an extensive range of certified refurbished spare parts, quickly delivered around the world.
What are the risks of neglecting server maintenance?
Errors in your server maintenance processes can cause issues ranging from the most common server issues to total system shutdowns.
To make the most of your server, avoid these common mistakes:
- Skipping routine maintenance tasks: This can lead to outdated software, unaddressed security weaknesses, and eventual server failure.
- Missing important security patches: Failing to install critical software patches can leave a server vulnerable to security breaches.
- Ignoring disk usage: Neglecting to monitor and manage disk usage can lead to disk space shortages. This impacts overall server performance and leads to potential data loss.
- Overlooking network traffic: This can result in network congestion and slowed server performance.
- Inadequate backup strategy: Failure to establish a robust data backup strategy can cause your systems to lose data during server crashes or failures.
- Poor documentation: Outdated asset inventories and logs can increase the risk of ghost assets, missed EOL/EOSL dates and recurring symptoms of issues going unnoticed. This can lead to excess costs, vulnerabilities and regulation breaches.
Why choose Evernex as your server maintenance partner?
Evernex offers a range of IT hardware solutions and support services to keep your server infrastructure at its best. Here are some of the top reasons to consider Evernex as your server maintenance partner:
- 40 years of expertise: Evernex has extensive experience in IT maintenance. We provide expert guidance and support to ensure the reliability and security of your server infrastructure.
- Global reach: Evernex consists of a global network of offices and service centers. We provide maintenance services and replacement parts wherever your business operates.
- Comprehensive services: Evernex offers end-to-end IT services. These include third-party maintenance, refurbished spare parts, buyback, IT recycling, and ITAD. This makes us a single point of contact for all server maintenance needs.
- Sustainability: Evernex is committed to sustainability and environmental responsibility. We ensure that your server maintenance activities align with eco-friendly practices.
- Quality replacement parts: Evernex provides reliable replacement parts, helping you minimize downtime and maintain the performance and reliability of your server infrastructure.
- Customer-first approach: Evernex places a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction. We tailor our server maintenance plans to meet your specific business requirements.
By following a clear to-do list and following industrial best practices, your company will have the foundation of stable server operations and have the peace of mind of keeping your hardware efficient, secure and available.
FAQ about server maintenance and best practices
What is server maintenance?
Server maintenance is a series of tasks which keep data center servers running smoothly and securely. This ranges from hardware diagnostics to maintaining the server room clean and at a stable temperature.
How often should you conduct server maintenance?
Businesses must regularly conduct maintenance tasks to keep their server in robust condition. The frequency may vary depending on specific business needs, but businesses opt for monthly or quarterly maintenance schedules.
What happens if I skip server maintenance?
Neglecting IT maintenance can lead to downtime, data loss, security breaches, and hardware failures.
These issues disrupt business operations, resulting in financial losses, damage to your brand’s reputation, and potential legal consequences.
What are the best practices for server maintenance?
Best practices when maintaining your server include routine software updates, hardware diagnostics, security audits and data back ups. Read our server maintenance checklist for a comprehensive list and explanation of server maintenance best practices.
Can third-party maintenance replace OEM server support?
During a server’s warranty period, businesses can employ TPM alongside OEM support. In this case, Third-Party Maintenance can supplement OEM assistance, filling in the gaps, so to speak. This can be particularly helpful in multi-vendor hardware infrastructures, or when OEM support is slow to assist. After the server’s warranty ends, TPM can effectively replace OEM technical support. In fact, Third-Party providers often provide comprehensive coverage for lower costs than renewing a manufacturer support contract.
Does server maintenance improve performance?
Yes! Correct server maintenance measurably improves performance by preventing bottlenecks and maximizing efficiency and capacity.