Uptime.com Blog

3 Common Web Server Monitoring Mistakes

What is Server Monitoring?

Server monitoring is the process of continuously scanning a server and analyzing it for availability, security and operations-related processes in order to protect the server from possible failure. Software is used to check the working conditions of the server and report on parameters such as CPS utilization, storage availability and communication interface responsiveness. Server monitoring is divided into several categories: firewall monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, router monitoring, switch monitoring, NetFlow monitoring and packet sniffing, and network and VoIP monitoring.

While monitoring your server plays an important role in maximizing a website’s uptime, there are mistakes that can be made during the process. Here are three common mistakes that you should avoid:

• Not monitoring your server at all. While this may be obvious to a tech savvy individual, many people are not aware of just how important a server monitoring is to the well-being of their website.
• Not checking frequently enough. Server monitoring services can offer a variety of options. While one may check your network every 15 minutes, a different one may offer to check at one-minute intervals. Allowing too much time in between checks can leave you unaware of an unexpected outage. The more frequently your server is checked, the better.
• Not properly directing notifications. When signing up with a server monitoring service, be certain that you list the correct person to contact in case of an emergency. If your network experiences an outage in the middle of the night, you will want the network administrator to be notified as opposed to the human resources manager.  Also be aware of how the notifications are sent. For example, if your network is down, you do not want to receive the alert via your company email address. Instead, you may choose to opt for a text alert.

Michael Esposito