Web Server Administration
Dedicated Servers > Guide > Basic Server Management



Managing Your Dedicated Server

Should you opt for an unmanaged server, it will be your responsibility to organize and maneuver the installation, setup, and maintenance of all server related hardware and software. A brief outline of the day-to-day tasks seeking your attention is provided here.

Making Backups
A server that constantly has new information on it needs to be backed up more often than one that rarely changes. Definitely, a server dedicated to serving web hosting clients is always busy with file uploads, database additions etc. and requires at least a daily backup. Also note that since high capacity hosting accounts are getting cheaper, many customers are actually using their gigabyte hosting account as a mini fileserver, adding to the freshness of server content that needs backing up.

As discussed on previous pages, RAID provides automatic reliability in case of media failure, and uninterrupted operation during hardware replacement. However, RAID reliability is dependent on only a single drive going bad.

A variety of Backup media is available, but the standard nowadays is to just have another hard disk.

Monitoring Disk Space
Your knowledge about the capacity of disks and the amount used should always be updated. This would be the easiest of these admin tasks, if monitoring itself were enough.

One of the main reasons to monitor disk space is because if the server logs are not examined every so often, they will fill up your file system. Every single request to the server results in the system accessing the hard disk, and at the same time writing a log entry for the request. That's why logs can grow with warp speed, and the bigger they are, the more time it takes to process them.

By processing, we mean a systematic way of naming and storing the logs.

Upgrading The Server
Bugs and security holes are regularly discovered in all programs and operating systems (on both Windows and Linux). The software manufacturers (vendors) usually release fixes also known as 'patches' to such problems soon after they are discovered., that you need to properly install on your server. At times, new versions will also be released, requiring more of your time and energy. The same goes true for other software currently employed by your machine. For example, if you provide your customers with Cpanel/WHM, you'll have to make sure that the latest version with all updates is currently installed and running smoothly.

Maintaining A Security Firewall
You will also be required to implement a security firewall on your server to prevent unauthorized access. If your host sets you up with one while doing the initial configuration of your server, the only activity you need to perform is running the new patches made available by firewall developing company.

Monitoring Your Hosts & Network Interfaces
Is your server reachable at this moment? Ping test is the easiest way of answering this question. While this test does not verify that your server is operating correctly, it does verify that the networking portion of it is reachable.

Monitoring HTTP
When you monitor HTTP, you ensure that the server is running and you assess its current load.

Even with unmanaged hosting, most hosts offer to monitor your http port, as well as ftp port and other standard services running on your server.

Other Sections In This Guide:
Server OS ... Before Anything Else, Hardware Issues, Managed VS Unmanaged Server, Considering A Virtual Private Server, Data Center & Server Connectivity Issues, Web Server Administration, DNS & BIND Overview, Remote Administration