Over the last several months we’ve discussed putting a number of systems & best practices in place to protect your environment and achieve Zero Downtime. Now we need to keep an eye on them to optimize their effectiveness and to ensure they are working properly. This is the major component to Zero Downtime I touched on in last month’s newsletter (Zero Downtime! It IS Attainable)...
In this month’s newsletter I’ll show you how to effectively monitor the important systems we have put in place. In many cases, we can automate the monitoring process so systems send you daily reports & special emails when something goes awry. Proactively monitoring and managing your systems is the key to maintaining Zero Downtime!
You need to keep an eye on all the internal systems that your business relies on, and all the external systems that your users and customers use to communicate and to investigate and book inventory. This includes servers and operating systems, the key applications that run on them, your power environment, your Internet circuits, and your web sites. Specifically, we are concerned with:
There are 4 primary methods used to monitor the items discussed above:
1. Configure your systems to send an email alert when the system detects a problem. These generally include server errors, backup errors, and virus events.
2. Configure your systems to send daily email status reports every morning. These generally include overall server status, backup status, and WSUS status.
3. Manual in-depth review of system indicators such as server logs and systems consoles, typically weekly. This generally includes server logs, backup logs, hardware details, WSUS details, AV details, UPS logs, and disk space.
4. Utilize monitoring applications designed to continuously monitor circuit and web site availability and responsiveness. These applications send emails to note a fault condition, and again when the condition returns to normal.
Utilizing this combination of monitoring processes and tools allows you to monitor the health of your key systems, ensure everything is operating at peak performance, and proactively react to any potential failures!
Many of our Clients, however, don’t have the time to perform this monitoring regimen, nor do they have the knowledge to fully understand the information provided through the consoles and logs. We have, therefore, developed an offering specifically designed to perform this service for them, which is described here: Proactive Systems Management.
As always, if you have any questions or comments concerning this article or our Proactive Systems Management offering, I’d be happy to discuss them with you at your convenience. Feel free to contact me at TomK@TomKConsulting.com, or via my cell 443.310.5110.
While Zero Downtime can be attained, we have to plan for that unlikely possibility when your data is destroyed or corrupted. So, next month’s newsletter will be dedicated to effective backups. I’ll discuss various internal and external backup systems, methodologies, and strategies that can get your business back in operation should a disaster strike. See "Backup the Company Jewels!"