What to Look for In Server Management Tools

What to Look for In Server Management Tools
What to Look for In Server Management Tools

Choosing the right server monitoring tool for your environment will help you keep your applications running smoothly. As these tools are responsible for delivering important information about what’s happening in your server, including metrics about your performance levels, server management tools are a valuable asset.

When you decide to implement server monitoring tools, there are certain activities and inclusions you should look for. Here are some things to consider.

Keep Your Environment in Mind

Before you look for tools to monitor your servers, you need to consider your environment. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to application monitoring. For example, if you use Dell hardware, you’ll want server monitoring that’s customized for the Dell environment. You’ll have to consider both what infrastructure you have in place currently, and where your organization is moving in the future.

As of right now, most businesses have a complex on-premises server that requires monitoring and maintenance. However, many tech experts discuss going serverless and cloud computing as the wave of the future. Think about how close those changes are for your organization and what you can put in place until then to make the transition easier.

Basic Server Health Monitoring

Whatever server management tools you decide to use, they should at the very least cover the basics of monitoring your server health. This means being able to live track your power, temperature, CPU, etc. Basically, everything that’s responsible for keeping your servers operational.

Being able to monitor the basics will give you advanced notice of any potential problems. If you have this health analysis readily available, you’ll be better prepared to get ahead of performance problems and prevent critical errors. As a result, you’ll reduce periods of inactivity that will cost your business money.

Forecasting and Analytics

With server monitoring, having an understanding of the past will better prepare you for the future. Server management systems will run analyses of past occurrences and create forecasts for future events. For example, if there’s a certain time of year when demand is higher, you’ll be able to prepare in advance.

There’s often seasonality in play with many business operations. For example, a website that sells products online will often see a significant increase in traffic during the holidays. Having information regarding this increase will help keep the website running smoothly and mitigate the loss of sales due to customer frustration. The same logic applies with server forecasting.

Troubleshooting and Problem Solving

It’s not enough to have an alert telling you when something is wrong. With the right server management tools and protocols in place, you’ll be alerted when a problem could occur and receive troubleshooting information to help solve it. Viewing event logs in real time will help you identify if there is a quick fix for an issue or if you need to kill a process to keep things moving forward.

Depending on the depth of your analytics, the program used, and the environment, you may be able to set up temporary fixes for recurring issues. This will give you more time to effectively solve a problem without interrupting processes and performance.

Benefits of Server Management

The main benefit of server management tools is the implication on a business’s bottom line. By ensuring that things run smoothly and identifying issues effectively, you’ll be able to allocate your resources in a strategic way. You’ll also reduce downtime that will negatively impact productivity and potential revenue.

While it’s important to set a budget and find monitoring tools that work with the resources you’ll have available, you’ll see a significant return on investment. Look for a server monitoring tool that comes with a free trial to better evaluate if it will work for your business.

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