Question

Monitoring servers- watching for/preventing problems

Asked by: STEVEO5

Our company has some very important servers that store important client information.
It is imperitive that any downtime for this servers are as limited as possible.
It is my job to make sure this happens by creating a tasklist for an IT junior to run through every morning to check the servers and try to find problems before they occur.

All servers are Windows 2000 file servers with an internet connection through the network not a direct connection.

What should be checked every morning to ensure the servers never go down? are there any specific event log problems that should be looked for?
would it be useful to set performance monitor up to check hardware status.

I appreciate the vagueness of my question but i really appreciate the help...and will add more points/split them of necessary...

Thanks guys

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Asked On
2004-01-18 at 15:07:43ID20854602
Topic

Windows 2000 Operating System

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: sirbountyPosted on 2004-01-18 at 15:10:26ID: 10142490

SMART monitoring on your drives is a plus..
Also - implement hardware redundancy where possible.
The logs may not give you much to prevent the server from ever crashing, but some hardware vendors do have built in alerts for predictive hardware failures.
What type of equipment are you using?

 

by: STEVEO5Posted on 2004-01-18 at 15:50:11ID: 10142625

Not at the site so not sure about the equipment at the moment.

what is SMART monitoring?

What about performance monitor?

 

by: sirbountyPosted on 2004-01-18 at 15:57:39ID: 10142642

Performance monitor will help you track down a suspicous problem when/after it occurs (memory leaks, etc).

Self-Monitoring-Analysis-Reporting-Technology. Good article here: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/qual/featuresSMART-c.html


 

by: Fatal_ExceptionPosted on 2004-01-18 at 17:40:09ID: 10143070

First you need to create a baseline using the System Monitor...  (Performance in Admin Tools).  This is done with Performance Logs and Alerts.  If your junior assistant is capable, they should know how to do this.  You can also setup email/messaging alerts to inform him of any problems that are occurring...

Make sure they ck all the backup logs each and every morning to insure good backups.  Even test the backups on a schedule that you may set...  (once a month.. a quarter... etc..)

 

by: Fatal_ExceptionPosted on 2004-01-18 at 17:44:11ID: 10143088

Here are some links for PL&A..

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBN/tip6600/rh6688.htm

Also (you may have to subscribe, but it is free)

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6262-1030260.html

 

by: patrick24Posted on 2004-01-19 at 05:45:07ID: 10146263

some suggestions. most or lesss the same with Fatal Exception

check for event viewer for any error and investigate if there any....
check for daily backup status... make sure it is successful. if not, solved it fast and rerun the job again.
Implement some hardware redundancy... if buget allow, go for cluster too.
standby some remote servers at DR site and do implement DR exercise every 3 months.


cheeerr...

patrick

 

by: Fatal_ExceptionPosted on 2004-04-01 at 19:22:20ID: 10737985

This question is getting pretty stale..  If any of the experts helped you, please accept an answer or ask to close it out..

http:/help/closing.jsp#1

Thanks,

FE

 

by: Fatal_ExceptionPosted on 2004-07-02 at 16:05:16ID: 11460865

thanks..

FE

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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