Server Management
Businesses rely heavily on their server infrastructure for key IT functions such as data storage, website hosting, email, and applications. Effective server management is crucial for ensuring smooth Service Operation and optimising performance.
Key Server Management Activities
The following activities must be undertaken by the server team(s) or department(s) – with different teams potentially required for various server types:
- Operating System Support: Ensuring the support and maintenance of relevant operating systems and associated utility software (e.g., failover software). This includes patch management and involvement in defining backup and restore policies.
- Licence Management: Managing licences for all server Configuration Items (CIs), particularly operating systems, utilities, and any application software not handled by Application Management teams.
- Third-Level Support: Providing third-level support for all server and server operating system-related incidents. This involves diagnosing and restoring services, as well as liaising with third-party hardware contractors or manufacturers to escalate hardware-related issues when necessary.
- Procurement Advice: Offering guidance to the business on server selection, sizing, procurement, and usage to meet business requirements effectively.
- System Security: Maintaining access controls and permissions within server environments, and enforcing appropriate physical and system security measures. This includes applying security patches, managing access, and implementing intrusion detection.
- Definition and Management of Virtual Servers: Ensuring that virtual servers built around a common standard are used to process workloads efficiently. Server Management must set standards, balance workloads, and monitor which server handles which workload to facilitate effective incident resolution.
- Capacity Management and Performance: Supporting Capacity Management by providing information and assistance to optimise server throughput, utilisation, and performance. This includes the installation and operation of virtualisation software to ensure maximum performance and cost-efficiency from the minimal number of servers.
- Routine Activities:
- Defining standard server builds as part of the provisioning process.
- Building and installing new servers for ongoing maintenance or new service provision.
- Setting up and managing clusters to build redundancy, improve service performance, and simplify infrastructure management.
- Ongoing Maintenance: Conducting a rolling schedule of server or ‘blade’ replacements to ensure that equipment is upgraded before it becomes obsolete or fails, thereby ensuring continued support for evolving services.
- Decommissioning and Disposal of Server Equipment: Decommissioning and disposing of old server hardware in line with the organisation’s environmental policies.