Four of the Most Troublesome Server Problems

                As any large corporation can ensure you, the longer a server is down the more profit is lost. For large corporations which lean heavily on their IT infrastructure, if a primary server array falls off the grid they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales, employee downtime, and resulting stock drops. While you may not be at that level with your current server configuration, there certainly is something to be said about protecting yourself from server failure. Server problems will manifest larger problems within your business unless they are handled quickly and concisely. Don’t know what you ought to be looking out for? No problem. Here are four of the most troublesome server problems, along with a few helpful hints regarding each.

Hard Disc Usage

Your hard drive is among the most important components within your server. All of your important business data, from invoices, product locations, client data, employee data, backups, etc. will be stored on your server’s hard drive. Consequently, backups are always a good idea. But even if you do have your data backed up regularly on a secondary drive, unless you have a redundant option a drive failure will cause a considerable amount of downtime. Look out for sudden increases in logs, warnings that your system is running out of storage (especially if the graded capacity isn’t reached), unexpected data loss or directory errors, or even unexpected noises.

Memory

Your server’s RAM is what provides the processor with ample “working space” making for speedy and efficient multitasking. System memory is especially important regarding servers, as these machines are tasked with a great deal of operations at once. Memory is most often replaced rather than fixed. If you notice that your processes are bogging down or running excessively, or if the CPU usage spikes suddenly, it’s likely that you may have a RAM failure.

Server Cooling System

Your server ought to have a temperature gauge, either a physical model which monitors the core temperature or an electronic thermometer with a peripheral display. If you notice that your server’s temperature is exceeding working bounds, chances are your fan or liquid cooling system is failing. As the internal temperature rises, you run the risk of frying your motherboard or damaging the components of your processor and memory. Oftentimes, this can be solved by performing physical maintenance on the fan or by adding a second fan to the assembly.

Power Supplies

The power supply is perhaps the most fundamental component of your server. Unfortunately, power supplies often fail without warning. Always check to make sure that all connections are secured before assuming the power supply has failed. Many people opt to instead have redundant power supplies. I keep an extra 300-1848 power supply on hand should my current supply fail. This effectively minimizes potential down time due to a server failure.

Computer Upgrade: Orders of Priorities

                The newest and best computer is right around the corner, and with every new release of an updated model, your current computer becomes just a little more dated. Whether it’s a personal desktop computer, an ultraportable laptop, or a high-powered server, sooner or later it’s going to be phased out. That’s unfortunate, considering that all of these computers were and remain major investments. So what do you do when you need to boost your computer’s performance to keep pace with the rest of the industry standards? If you’ve got a budget in mind, you may not be able to do a complete renovation on your computer, so we’re not talking a brand new configuration inside an old case. You may only be able to afford a single upgrade for your computer. So the question remains: which computer component warrants the investment? Here’s a short list arranged by priority, with an explanation as to why.

First And Foremost – The Processor

If you’re intending to upgrade a laptop, this one can be a bit of trouble. A lot of laptop boards integrate their processor with the board or have very restricted socket types. It’s easier when it comes to desktops and server computers. The processor will show the most flat out improvement in power and efficiency. Multi-core processors or multiple internal processors will allow your computer to handle more in a shorter time. Look for a processor with a high clock speed, and ideally, the ability to overclock. If your server is running a lot of processes, multiple cores are especially important.

Second – Storage

Some people might think it strange that storage comes in second. After all, it’s just a matter of capacity, right? That’s part of it, but not nearly the whole story. Upgrading your storage can result in increases in performance, provided that you make the right upgrade. Look for a hard drive which has a higher spindle speed than your current drive. This offers faster data writes and retrievals, so anything stored on the drive offers faster access. If you’re looking for reliability and speed, consider upgrading from a traditional magnetic hard drive with moving components to a solid state drive, which currently offers the industry’s fastest performance.

Third – The Memory Expansion

For personal computing, RAM is often heralded as one of the most important upgrades. For most people, you can scoot by with four to eight gigabytes of memory. Memory is especially important if you intend to do a lot of multi-tasking. If you only run three or four applications at a time, you won’t see a great increase in performance from adding RAM, as most applications don’t eat up anywhere near a gigabyte of random access memory. However, in server applications, a lot of RAM is very important – one of the reasons why my number one priority in upgrading my server was the addition of Sun Microsystems 8GB servers memory upgrade. As servers are tasked with multiple processes at once, sometimes number in the several dozens, the additional RAM does produce a noticeable increase in performance.