5 Dedicated Server Maintenance Tips

5 Dedicated Server Maintenance Tips

With rapid digitization, businesses have migrated towards the internet to increase revenues and reap various benefits.

However, without the correct tools to store, access, exchange data, etc running a smooth business online would be a far-fetched idea.

This is why dedicated servers play an important role in online commerce platforms. However, to ensure business continuity, maintaining the servers is a very crucial factor.

What is a dedicated server?

A dedicated server is an exclusive, remote server that is devoted to an individual, organization, or application.

These servers are managed, installed, etc by managed service providers. Moreover, clients/users often use this to carry out server-based activities.

While dedicated servers are multifunctional, these also contribute to hosting applications, storing data, or providing backup services.

The main purpose of using a dedicated server is to manage traffic and increase revenues.

However, modern servers are designed to suit multiple applications or use customized for the users. Based on usability, they are often divided into various types.

If you have a business online or a website, dedicated web hosting is the right solution for you.

These provide legitimate uptime with extensive management features and a good backup strategy.

Besides, dedicated servers or website also offers high security along with high-speed website loading time which contributes to attracting more traffic to your page.

On the other hand, if you are projected more towards email hosting, choosing dedicated servers for emails can be your best bet.

These servers offer better monitoring options that can help you keep track of communications with clients while offering attachment/file upload limits and customized mailing addresses for the enterprise.

In addition, email hosting mainly comprises of dealing with confidential information, hence providing users with high-security resources and features.

Concurrently, dedicated server hosting has gone way beyond websites and emails.

Gaming has found a new place in the strata, hence gamers are migrating towards dedicated servers for taking their gaming experience way over the top.

Importance of investing in a dedicated server?

Before we venture out to learn some tips on maintenance, let us first get into the basics. Dedicated servers help in running a business smoothly online. However, here are some reasons why you need to invest in a dedicated server plan:

Traffic and growth

Starting a business online entails a lot of factors. Among them, growing your website is one of the most crucial ones. If you are expecting website growth, it is recommended to shift towards a dedicated server.

Why? Website growth and traffic go hand in hand. While the growth spikes, traffic increases too, resulting in a deterioration in performance.

Hence, migrating to a dedicated server can help you to stay ahead of the game while avoiding any risks of revenue loss.

Security concerns

Whenever you are running a business online, your website is exposed to continuous threats like phishers, viruses, etc that can compromise sensitive information such as credit card, address, etc.

However, with dedicated servers, you are always in control of the security since it offers flexible optimization features for your website.

Page loading time

The time taken for your website to load can affect all aspects of your business.

Moreover, the audience or customers often prefer pages with a fast loading time. Besides, shared hosting uses the same resources elsewhere, thus impacting your website.

Dedicated server hosting offers exclusivity, hence boosting your bandwidth for your website.

Gaining Authority

As the name suggests, dedicated servers are designed absolutely for your business needs.

Its flexibility offers you complete authority over the server. From optimization to customized services, you can use the server suited to your preferences.

Best 5 Server Management Tips For Your Business!

While the wonders of dedicated servers never seem to exist, maintaining the servers and upgrading them also keeps you ahead of the game. Here are some of the best server maintenance tips for your business or website:

Double-checking is important

Drive failure, losing data, etc can be disastrous. This is why having a decent backup strategy for your business is a necessity.

Also, making sure to copy the server environment to a virtual machine or in a cloud environment is extremely important to ensure the servers are functioning well.

Monitor the RAID array

Most dedicated servers come with a Redundant Array of Independent Disks or a RAID array which is a collection of multiple hard drives that acts as a single storage unit for the data in case of a drive failure.

Moreover, these arrays entail advanced monitoring resources, hence checking them consistently can help you avoid potential hard disk failures.

Check your storage utilization

Servers often store old files, emails, obsolete software packages, etc that can affect your storage space, thus affecting your performance.

However, you can avoid this by archiving old data, etc to the external storage.

Moreover, various servers also provide cleanup resources that can help you manage your files more efficiently. Besides, utilizing 90% of your overall disk space can interfere with file swapping.

Keep your control panel updated

Dedicated servers are upgrading themselves. With each upgrade, these servers are being equipped with more flexibility and the capability to perform better.

However, control panels are usually updated manually, and using obsolete panels can be troublesome for your website since it affects the website performance.

However, you also need to update the applications associated with the control panel such as Apache or PHP.

Cleaning and checking the hardware

While cleaning the storage is important, similarly keeping your hardware physically clean is also crucial.

Monitor and clean your hardware physically to avoid any potential hardware failures or malfunctions.

Dust and debris interfere with the heat management features which affects the server performance. Apart from that, make sure to check the wiring along with the cabinets for ample airflow.

Moreover, networks that might be unaccounted for can be a cause of security risks.

In addition, many servers, nowadays also keep track of their hardware errors.

The source of the error can be a SMART error, hardware failure, etc, however, checking the logs regularly for errors might help you from a catastrophic failure that can affect the overall website.