6 tips to master server troubleshooting

T-Blog Editor/ September 27, 2020/ Application Maintenance on Production Systems, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice

Reading Time-approximately: 7 minutesUnderstand, communicate, monitor, check logs, ask for support. Follow these guidelines, and make troubleshooting server problems quick and easy. By Adam Fowler Server troubleshooting is a fine art, but there are some quick and easy methods and tips to get things running smoothly. ITIL methodology delves into how to troubleshoot a server or a related issue more deeply, but the general

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Best practices for sizing a server

T-Blog Editor/ September 24, 2020/ Best practices for data center operations, Data Centre Servers, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Server hardware and virtualization, Trends: Datacenter Hardware and Solutions

Reading Time-approximately: 3 minutesServing sizing requires a number of comparisons, especially between having a few large servers or many popcorn servers. Compare use cases to find what fits. By Jim O’Reilly Sizing a server for virtualized clusters requires a choice between using a few large, powerful servers or many small, inexpensive ones. Administrators must compare the advantages of each setup in the context

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Windows file systems showdown: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and ReFS

T-Blog Editor/ September 24, 2020/ Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice, Windows client management

Reading Time-approximately: 4 minutesSome older file formats continue to find life in the enterprise decades after they were developed for their versatility — in certain situations. By Brien Posey Modern Microsoft operating systems support multiple Windows file systems, including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and ReFS. Each of these file systems has its own unique capabilities and use cases. Despite their age, some of the

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SAN system buying guide: The fundamentals

T-Blog Editor/ September 17, 2020/ Data Center Hardware, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Primary Storage Devices, SAN Technology and Arrays

Reading Time-approximately: 6 minutesUse this guide to determine if a SAN is right for your environment, or if you should go with DAS or NAS. By Jacob Gsoedl Even with the continuous use of DAS and increased use of NAS, SANs continue to provide medium- and large-sized enterprise organizations with reliable shared storage over high-speed Fibre Channel, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocols. And

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Pick a data center layout: Raised floors vs. overhead cabling

T-Blog Editor/ September 14, 2020/ Data center design and facilities, Data center facilities, Data Center Hardware, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice

Reading Time-approximately: 4 minutesThere’s no definitive design when it comes to data center infrastructure. Cost, manageability and cooling effectiveness are all factors during the selection process. By Robert McFarlane In data center infrastructure design, admins may wonder if it’s more beneficial to place all cabling overhead to save the cost of a raised floor or pay more upfront to reap raised floor benefits.

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Data center improvements extend its life 10 more years

T-Blog Editor/ September 13, 2020/ Data center design and facilities, Data center facilities, Data Center Hardware, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice

Reading Time-approximately: 5 minutesSpace, power, cooling and equipment improvements give your data center design new life. Do it right to keep costs down. By Robert McFarlane You’re going to be in your current data center for at least another five years — maybe as long as 10. The racks are getting crowded, and the business is pushing for IT to add services that require more

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Upgrade considerations for a blade server vs. rack server

T-Blog Editor/ September 13, 2020/ Data Center Hardware, Data Centre Servers, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice, Server hardware strategy

Reading Time-approximately: 4 minutesBlade servers and rack servers aren’t designed the same, which means the refresh process varies for each. Explore the different upgrade considerations for memory, storage and more. By Jim O’Reilly For most IT shops, a server farm upgrade or replacement is inevitable. But that refresh process differs depending on whether the installed base is a blade server configuration or traditional

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Stop zombie servers from eating up data center resources

T-Blog Editor/ September 13, 2020/ Data Center Hardware, Data Centre Servers, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice, Server hardware strategy

Reading Time-approximately: 2 minutesZombie servers can waste precious data center resources — and are more common than many IT teams think. Fortunately, DCIM and other monitoring tools can stop them in their tracks. By Robert McFarlane Comatose servers — also known as “zombie servers” — occupy space and usurp power and cooling in a data center. In today’s data centers, 30% of servers

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Four options to optimize SSD performance in the data center

T-Blog Editor/ September 13, 2020/ Best practices for data center operations, Data center facilities, Data Center Hardware, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Enterprise data storage strategies, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice

Reading Time-approximately: 5 minutesAs more organizations adopt SSDs, practices for storage optimization need to evolve. Learn how tactics, such as disabling defragmentation and using the write cache, can play a role. By Stephen J. Bigelow Solid-state drive storage has gained traction as enterprises seek faster and more reliable storage for top-tier applications. But the rise in solid-state drive deployment has also spawned a

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Which data center KPIs are the most useful?

T-Blog Editor/ September 13, 2020/ Best practices for data center operations, Data center facilities, Datacenter Infrastructure News, Engage the experts, Enterprise data storage strategies, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice

Reading Time-approximately: 2 minutesAs admins evaluate data center performance, they need ways to look at both short-term and long-term data. KPIs offer one way to evaluate components, such as storage. By Stephen J. Bigelow Data center admins must regularly gauge hardware and software performance to help them make decisions about upgrades and staffing. Key performance indicators are a useful way to gain perspective

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