Boost Speed and Performance With Routine Server Maintenance Care

Why Fast Systems Don’t Stay Fast on Their Own

A new server will do everything extremely quickly. Files will open instantly, reports will finish in a flash, and logging in will be a doddle. After a year or two of regular use, however, things can start to drag for reasons which aren’t always obvious. It’s typically a number of small problems rather than one major one and that’s what routine server maintenance is all about.. It’s also why the setup work done through IT deployment services is only the starting point — holding on to that performance takes regular attention.

Where the Slowdowns Usually Come From

Even with a very careful IT deployment, servers can get into performance problems over time. Here are some of the common reasons.

Quick Performance Pointers

• Slowdowns generally accrue from a number of small problems rather than one big fault.
• Clearing out the old files and the unused services will free up both storage and memory.
• Record the baseline figures so you can see whether any of the tune-ups made a difference.
• Memory and drive upgrades will help once regular tuning is no longer sufficient.

Small Tasks That Add Up

The vast majority of performance tasks are fairly straightforward. They involve deleting the files you don’t need, archiving the old records, updating your drivers and firmware and ensuring each application is properly configured. Network settings need to be checked too as a badly configured switch can have a massive impact on the speed of your file transfers. Each individual task is fairly trivial in itself, but if you ignore them for months, the cumulative effect can be quite dramatic.

This is where server maintenance services come in. Instead of waiting for complaints about slow logins, the work happens on a fixed schedule, often after hours, so your team notices steadier performance rather than the maintenance itself.

Measuring Before and After

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Before any tune-up at all, you need to get some baseline numbers: processor usage during peak times, available memory, disk activity, and the time it takes to do the normal things that people do (e.g., opening up a large file, running a monthly report). You then compare those numbers after each round of maintenance to see if anything has improved. Some of the server maintenance providers will actually track these figures for you, which makes it a lot easier to spot the sort of gradual deterioration that people don’t necessarily notice. If the numbers are getting worse, then it may be that your hardware is at the end of its rope.

When Tuning Isn’t Enough

Maintenance can only get us so far. At some point, the server will be doing more work than it was ever designed to do.

When that happens, consider discussing these upgrades with your IT deployment provider:

• Adding more memory gives busy apps the headroom they need to operate without having to constantly swap data out to the much slower storage.
• Replacing the old hard drives with solid-state drives will reduce the load and start-up times.
• Moving the heavy workloads (e.g. large databases) onto their own server effectively removes them from the resource pool and so they no longer compete for resources.
• Spreading the traffic across more than one server means that a spike in users won’t cause things to slow down for everyone.

Keeping Things Quick for the Long Run

A slow server rarely fails in a dramatic way, so performance issues are generally just ignored. People will find ways of working around them and it becomes the norm. Regular maintenance will nip problems in the bud before they become serious, and you can track a few key figures to see if your maintenance is actually having an effect. When tuning is no longer sufficient you’ll have the evidence to go on and justify an upgrade. In the end, your team will spend less time waiting and more time actually doing work.

Contact Knowledge Computers to arrange a performance check on your servers and see where routine care can make a difference.