1) Wipe off Electronics Daily:
Cleaning your computer network elements is essential for good server health. Dust and small debris can build up over time and grow onto hardware elements, reducing their productivity. Cleaning or dusting the server and computer hardware at least once daily is a great way to prevent this harmful buildup (you don’t want your system to look like the one on the left, do you?).
2) Eliminate Food in the Room
This is one of the most basic guidelines with regard to computer heath. Dust is inevitable, but small food and drink particle litter can be avoided by restricting these items near the server room. The last thing you want is for an employee to spill liquid on computer hardware, and banning food helps upkeep the cleanliness of the space.
3) Limit Personnel Access
Simply limiting the access of employees is an easy way to decrease foot traffic through your server room. Shoes contain dirt and dust particles so the less people who interact with the room, the better. Either way, this space should be reserved for qualified network technicians only.
4) Use a Surge Protector
Surges or spikes in electricity can cause damage to your networking hardware. This is an unpredictable element, and can even depend on the weather at certain times of the year. To avoid potential data loss and server damage, be sure that all of your important hardware is connected to power via a surge protector. They only cost a few bucks, which is microscopic if you consider the amount of time and money it would take to replace an entire server or computer network.
5) Back Up Your Data
Although this doesn’t exactly relate to server health, it is important to perform. Unseen threats always exist- such as theft, fire or flooding. Peace of mind can be established for cents on the day by backing up your mission-critical files in an off-site location for when disasters occur. For more information on backup, see our iRemote page.
6) Keep the Room Cool
Computers and servers produce a great amount of heat, especially when running constantly. Although it is debated constantly by IT experts, the general rule of thumb is to keep your expensive hardware in an environment that is lower than 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the maximum temperature limit, so you’ll want to avoid even getting close to it. Maintaining an ambient temperature of 68-75 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal for system reliability.