Server Maintenance is designed to allow the small/mid sized business piece of mind. Instead of always worring, "How is my data, how is my network" the can feel right at ease knowing that I am here to manage the system for them. The normal setup is that I dial into their server later in the evening, usually after the business is closed for the day, and perform regular mainteniance, updates and preventative measures to get the most out of your system that you can. Remember, your data is the most important thing that can your company can have. Without data, there is no client information, no products, no knowledge of sales or potential sales. As such, the concept of "Data First" has become the motto that I live for. As with every one of my services that I perform, it is customized to meet your particular needs and budget.

Defragmentation of Hard Drive

The worst idea for any business man is the knowledge that the employees are not as productive as they can be. As a windows computer is used and data is added and subtracted, the system becomes slower and slower because parts of the data are spread across the entire memory. To solve this a defragmentation, or consolidation, of the information is done to make sure that the data is as accessible to the employees as soon as possible.

Event Viewing

Most sever problems can be found and fixed prior to the system actually falling apart. In order to do this, a regular checking of the event logs will tell you when something is starting to become fouled, and allow me to correct it before your employees are sitting there doing nothing.

Anti-Virus

As part of any good regiment, a good anti-virus system should be in place, and monitored to make sure that it is up to date with the latest definitions. Most companies put it in, and forget about it, not expecting that it has stopped downloading the updates. An outdated anti-virus is only slightly better then no anti-virus!

Exchange Monitoring

Most mid sized businesses have their own internal exchange email system, some of the older versions of exchange had a bad habit of keeping bad mail and filling up the hard drive with junk files. Sometimes a good cleaning and defragmentation of the email system is needed. This is part of the standard service.

Data Protection

As stated earlier, the data of your business is probably more valuable then the actual business itself, because without it, there is no business. To compensate, there are two different area's to monitor because of this one issue.

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Backups

The infamous plan B of any situation, this one basic principle is the heart solution to any major problem that happens and more common then not, it is not checked. To ensure that the data is available when needed, a regular test restore of a file is needed to know for certain that on the darkest hour, there is still a ray of hope.

Hard Drive Checking

The storage of your information, this one piece is litterally the heart of the information, if it isn't doing well, then the data is no longer reliable. A regular testing of the hard drive to make certain that it is healthly is needed.

As a rule of thumb, the initial review and analysis takes about four hours for each server, in which time, the entire system is reviewed, looking for issues, cataloging the programs that are either running or installed, determining hardware configurations, and also determining if there are any special needs to be considered with the individual servers. After which, a complete report is presented to you as the client with a purposed plan of action. It is at this time, that it can be determined as to the price and schedule of support needed for the systems in question.

• The system has to be supported by the developer. As of 2006, Windows 2000 (both server and workstation versions) were no longer supported by Microsoft. I am unwilling to take on a risk that even Microsoft isn't willing to take on.
• The system has to be reachable via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP or Terminal Services).
• The network has to be accessible via the internet, I can not work on a server that is offline.
• I must be given an account to the system that has administrative priviliages to atleast the systems that I am going to be working on.

Contact Me if you want to determine if your system is remote accessible.

Policies for Server Maintenance