What is Server Monitoring?

Server monitoring is the process of gaining visibility into the activity of your servers- whether it is physical or virtual. Servers are devices that store and process information that is provided to other devices, applications or users on demand.

A single server can support thousands of requests together. Make sure that all of the organization’s servers are operating according to the expectations is a vital part of managing your IT organization.

In this blog, we will be talking about server monitoring and why it is important for an organization.

As an administrator provisions new servers and virtual machines either on the cloud or on-premise, every additional server should be monitored for health, security, and server maintenance to ensure the safety and performance of the network.

It is rapidly important for administrators to monitor servers, especially as they continue to add more to the network, and ensure that these servers are properly maintained, patched, and retired over time. Without server monitoring and server installation services, administrators will be unaware of security breaches.

What is Server Monitoring?

Server monitoring is the process of systematic monitoring, measuring or observing of processes and operations on a server. Its motive is to use the collected raw data to draw conclusions about the stability and condition of the server and make sure it reaches its optimal performance.

The term Server Monitoring is complex because of the exceptionally wide range of servers that exist. A web server can be a physical one. Still, it increasingly refers to a virtual server housed on a physical machine which is then shared by dozens of other clients, each running their independent server system.

Monitoring servers and altering the issues on the server requires a particular type of technological oversight, and the standard off-the-desk server monitoring is unlikely to be appropriate for each one of them, especially in a secure server workspace.

A standard organization, server management includes daily monitoring, installing software updates, installation, configuration and setup of new equipment, and problem troubleshooting and triage.

For example, if an organization might need enough web server power to support 10,000 users, with an upgrade of 12,000 users, a server manager will ensure that the capacity is available on demand.

Why is Server Monitoring Important?

Servers are an integral part of a network, especially when setting up a small business network. They perform authentication, authorization, security, store data, and provide a platform for applications to run. The health and security of these network components are critical for business productivity.

Depending upon the functioning of the server, a compromised server can allow an attacker to gain access to sensitive data containing information about customers and employees. The same critical server could affect the organization’s productivity if it is compromised, making it crucial to fix the server immediately.

Server network monitoring can help the administrators monitor the following:

• Accessibility: Pinging the servers to make sure it is powered on and responding to make sure that users can connect to the server and use its resources.
• CPU and Memory Usage: Make sure that the server has enough CPU power and RAM installed for the requested process.
• Performance: If the server does not respond quickly, it can generate a lag in critical applications and response time will increase.
• Processes: If a background process fails randomly, it will mean that the server has failed to execute the requested functionality. For example, if the process used to run web services fails, the server might no longer be able to respond to web requests.

How does Server Monitoring Work?

The way server monitoring works depends on the application and service used to collect data from the server. Servers can be logged and aggregated so that the central application can read and parse the information.

Server monitoring provides administrators with various functions. Below are some of the functions that you should know about while monitoring:

• Monitor Specific Resources: You may want to monitor basic resource usage across all the servers, but you might want to monitor specific resources on other servers based on their functionality.
• Monitor changes to Server Configuration: Changes made to server configuration can mean compromise. Monitoring changes helps prevent a threat before it can be used to steal a large amount of data.
• Working with Aggregated Logs: In a humongous environment, it is possible to have dozens of servers executing different tasks. Each server guarantees its own logged event, which can be aggregated in one location. A logging tool that reads and analyzes data can be pulled from various logs across numerous storage locations.

The organization should have the perfect documentation and procedures to respond to alerts and monitoring deviations. In a huge environment, an organization can have a network operations center or security operations center where analysts review and monitor output from the monitoring tools, ensuring that server installation company processes are also aligned with these standards.

Server Monitoring V/S Server Performance Monitoring

Server monitoring is a wider term that highlights the overall health of a server, server performance monitoring is concerned strictly with the performance metrics. In the case of a physical server, metrics primarily include memory and CPU utilization, as well as disk I/O and network performance.

In the case of a virtual server, performance metrics might include database or web server response time, network bandwidth utilization and other measure of resource utilization depending on the particular type of server.

Server Performance Monitoring is crucial for various reasons. Firstly, it is very predictable in nature- slowdowns and other performance issues can be instructive in helping the IT industry pinpoint problems that are generating.

Bottlenecks are useful in showing where the service upgrades are needed, and capacity management tools can be used to provide clarification on what resources might be needed to support a new application.

What to Look for in Server Monitoring Tools?

You will want to assess the main server monitoring capabilities:

• The Breadth of Coverage: Does the tool support all the server types which your organization uses? Are they prepared for the future types of servers which your organization might implement moving forward?
• Intelligent Alert Management: Is it easy to set up alerts to the configuration of thresholds which trigger them? How are alerts delivered?
• Main Cause Investigation Intelligence: Does the tool cover logic or AI algorithms to help you determine why a problem has occurred rather than telling you that something has gone wrong without any context?
• Ease of Use: Does the system include an intuitive dashboard that makes it easy to monitor events, perform triage and react to problems quickly?

Key Takeaways

Servers for small business are the main technical lifeline of an organization, so it makes sense that IT managers will want to take each step possible to make sure that they are performing at their maximum potential.

Monitor server performance smartly is the key to making sure that there is a possibility of maximum performance. But keep in mind that the best server monitoring tools are not just reactive, informing you about the problems only after they have occurred.