- Please make sure your backup is working before making any changes to the production system. You can even run some test recoveries if you want to delete critical data. While focusing on backup, you may want to ensure that you choose the correct backup location.
- Check the disk usage.
Do not use your production system as an archive system. Delete the old log electronic components and software version, which are no longer used. Make sure your system is not subject to the security problems of the old software. A smaller data footprint means faster recovery. If your usage exceeds 90% of the disk capacity, you can reduce the usage or add more empty storage. If your partition reaches 100%, your server may stop responding to the database table, which may be damaged and data may be lost.
- Monitor RAID alarms. All production servers should use RAID More importantly, you should monitor your RAID status. In our business for more than ten years, we have had RAID failures in countless systems. The result is that the failure of a single disk causes the failure of the entire system. In rackaid, we either use our monitoring RAID as our provider or we have established direct RAID monitoring. Roughly I estimate that 1% of the RAID servers fail every year. One percent of the time it seems unlikely that a complete server will fail and a simple drive can be replaced with a disaster recovery that takes more than an hour.
- Frequent updates to the Linux system. Staying at the top of these updates is challenging. This is why we use automatic patch management tools and monitoring that has been made to remind us when the system is outdated. If you update your server manually (or not at all), you may miss important security updates. Hackers often scan the vulnerabl system when a problem is disclosed. Therefore, rapid response is the key. If it cannot be updated automatically, then create a schedule to update the system. I suggest at least the current version every week or the old operating system version every month. I also issue a notice from the release monitoring, so you know any major security threats and can respond quickly
- Update the control panel. If you are using the control panel of the host or server, be sure to update it. Sometimes this means updating the software not only in the control panel itself. For example, you must manually update the PHP version of Nanguo/CPanel to solve known problems. Simply updating the control panel does not also update the operating system version you use for basic Apache and PHP.
- Check for hardware errors. You may need to check the log for signs of hardware problems. Overheating notifications, disk read errors, and network failures may be early indicators of existing hardware failures. This is rare, but it is worth a try especially if the system does not work within the normal range.
- Change the password. I suggest changing the password every 6~12 months, especially if you give the password to others for maintenance
