An integral part of any server support plan is a server maintenance plan. It is the technical manager of the server support company who is in charge of creating a server maintenance plan to maintain both the warranty and performance of the server. This is done by following the specific scheduled maintenance requirements of all physical servers and its related equipment.

A server maintenance plan is basically divided into three parts; scheduled maintenance, use of patches and the overall maintenance of the system. This plan is better understood if you understand the functioning of a server.

Objective of a server

Server is basically the physical hardware of a computer where you find the hard drive, computer processor and memory of the computer. The objective of using a server in an office is to provide maximum computer power through minimal space.

This is why you find many organizations today using multiple servers in a server rack to increase the processing power that provide support to various databases, systems and applications. With so much lying in the hands of the server, it is no wonder server maintenance is so important in server support.

Scheduled maintenance

In case of scheduled maintenance of the server support system, technical staff carries out regular backup of data, runs diagnostic programs and refreshes key programs of the server. The staff performing all these duties are competent and specifically trained in the applications and operating system of the server.

Usually, scheduled maintenance is held outside normal business hours so that there is no interruption to daily operations. To carry out a scheduled maintenance, the server has to be removed from its production environment.

On an average, a server has to be maintained thrice a year. However overloaded systems may require frequent maintenance. It is usually when a company cannot afford to buy the right resources that they overload and squeeze everything into the existing system.

Application of patches

Application of patches is an important part of a server maintenance plan. This system patch is a set of code that is provided by the manufacturer to handle certain problems like security weakness or a development bug of the server.

To apply a patch, the technical staff has to first back up whatever data is found on the server and then take the server offline. After applying the patch, the functionality of the server is tested. Once the patch is successfully implemented, the relevant data is restored to the server, and put to work as usual.

Overall maintenance

The frequency of overall system maintenance of a server is required at least once a year, but can change, depending on the size of the organization. The server support company is authorized to carry out this part of the server maintenance plan over long weekends, when there is usually slop in the system processes. Of course, the technical staff has to make a backup of all systems and relevant data of the computer before carrying out this part of the server maintenance plan.