Physical Maintenance

There are many types of software can help you maintain your servers, but if you don't take care of the physical components of your servers, all the software in the world will be of no use to you. Because your servers need to be kept clean and in the proper operating conditions, you should take time periodically to take your servers down during off-hours in midmonth and perform a complete hardware maintenance check on them. During your hardware check, you need to do the following:

For more information on maintaining servers, see, "Routine Maintenance," p. 854.

• Use compressed air and blow out your system. When using the compressed air, make sure that you clean all parts of the server, including the fans, power supply, memory banks, hard drive cage, and cooling slots in the case. Before using compressed air, move the server outside or use a vacuum system to remove dust from the air before it can be sucked into another server or client PC nearby.

• Remove and reseat the cards in the server, including the system's memory modules.

• Pull the hard drives and reseat them. While the drives are out, blow out their connectors with compressed air.

• Make sure that all indicator lights on the system are functioning properly.

• If you have redundant parts, such as power supply or fans, make sure that they are functioning properly.

Note

Sometimes redundant hardware failures may only be reported during initial system startup. Thus, it can be useful to shut down a server occasionally, maintain it, and restart it to check for these types of failures.

• Check your server room for any water leaks in the ceiling or any other environmental conditions that would be hazardous to your server.

• Check you battery backup meter to make sure that your battery isn't overloaded or reading as bad.

• Test your battery backup. You should make sure that your battery backup system lasts the duration for which it is rated before its battery dies. Your UPS should have a serial or USB cable to your server to allow for a smart system shutdown before your UPS battery dies, and you should make sure that your UPS can properly shut down your server. For more information, see Chapter 14, "Power Protection."

Note

UPS software usually gives you the option to shut down your server X minutes before your battery dies, where X is determined by the server administrator. When you set this up, it might take three minutes for your server to shut down, so setting this option to five minutes is sufficient. Over time, adding more items to your server could cause your server to take a considerably longer time to shut down. When this happens, your UPS will run out of battery life before it gets to shut down your server, causing your server to crash.

To avoid unnecessary downtime for your network, you should schedule routine maintenance during off hours.

The Server Environment

To keep your servers running smoothly, you should make sure that the environmental conditions within the server room are optimal for your servers' performance. A common cause of server failure is improper server room environments. Sometimes server rooms are literally closets that people put their servers in. Without modifications suited to a particular server, these types of environments are asking for trouble.

For more information on sever rooms, see Chapter 17, "Server Rooms."

Because poor environmental conditions can cause server instability, maintaining the proper conditions for your server's operation is just another reason you need to make sure your servers are as fault tolerant as your budget will allow.

Server Software Updates

Another important defensive maintenance tool is software updates. The most important software updates are for a server's operating system. If you are running a Microsoft Windows server operating system, you are probably all too aware of the frequent updates that Microsoft releases.

Although it is true that occasionally these updates can cause some problems of their own, overall, they are far more beneficial for your server's reliability and security than they are a risk to your server's stability. These updates will keep your systems protected from recently discovered security vulnerabilities, they frequently add new features that Microsoft has developed and added to its toolbox, and they often slam the front door on new viruses that are capable of attacking holes in Microsoft's operating systems.

There are two ways to install Microsoft's latest updates onto your server: using auto-updates and using Microsoft's Windows updates website. It is generally a better idea to install updates manually than to use auto-updates; that way, you know what you are installing, just in case an update causes a problem for your system. Installing Windows updates after verifying that they will work properly with your server is a good item to add to your defensive maintenance plan.

Tip

Sometimes Microsoft patches for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows clients cause problems. To find out whether a particular patch or update is worth installing or should be avoided, we recommend visiting the Patch Watch column in the Windows Secrets Newsletter. To subscribe, go to http://windowssecrets.com.

Hardware Drivers and BIOS Updates

Another good tool to add to your defensive maintenance plan is hardware updates. You can check your hardware manufacturer's website to see if there are any updates for your server or your server's hardware. These updates can fix minor flaws and compatibility issues with your hardware. If your server is a name-brand server such as Compaq or Dell, getting these updates is a relatively easy task. You just go to the appropriate support website and look for updates for your particular system. If you have built your server(s) from scratch, using industry-standard components, you should keep a list of the support site for each component and visit these sites regularly to look for updates.

You should upgrade hardware drivers or BIOS code under the following circumstances:

• When current versions are known to be defective

• When updates are required before other updates (such as processor updates) can be performed

In addition to these guidelines, you should follow these recommendations:

• Use only production-level drivers or BIOS code; avoid using beta (prerelease) drivers or BIOS.

• If possible, install the updates on a test server identical to production systems and test the updates under typical and exceptional circumstances before installing the updates on production hardware. Keeping your server's OS and hardware drivers up-to-date helps you avoid running into compatibility issues as well as make sure your server gives you the best possible performance for as long as it can.

	For more information on operating systems and drivers for your server, see "Server Hardware and Drivers," p. 776.
	For more information on BIOS updates, see "Upgrading a Flash BIOS," p. 314.