Server Health Checks 101: Proactive Monitoring to Prevent Downtime

Proper server monitoring is not what any company should take lightly. It helps ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability of IT infrastructure by detecting and addressing potential root cause of problems before they affect operations. The server is where most company operations take place—by keeping it safe; you'll offer users a smooth experience without interruptions to resources and applications.

This article is a comprehensive guide to server monitoring, and as you read on, you will learn about the following:

• What is proper server Monitoring
• Why you need to monitor your server health
• The Essential Metrics you need to track in server health checks
• How to carry out a detailed server health check
• What a server monitoring tool can help you check for

What is Server Monitoring?

Proper server monitoring is the process of gaining insights into your server's performance and health by analysing key metrics such as CPU, memory, storage, and network activity. If these metrics are left unchecked for a certain period, they will lead to increased downtime, performance degradation, and security risks, affecting the operation and user experience.

By utilizing a comprehensive monitoring system, you can set up alerts and notifications that will keep you informed ahead of time against any issue, thereby reducing the potential impact on the entire system.

Why You Need to Monitor Your Server Health

1. 1. Prevent Downtime: Monitoring your server health helps you quickly identify and resolve issues that requires attention before they lead to costly downtime, such as system malfunctions, network congestion, and hardware failures.
2. 
   
3. 2. Enhances Server Security: By regularly monitoring logs and data analysis, you can spot unusual activities or unauthorized login attempts. This enables you to activate the necessary security measures. The presence of anomalies like sudden CPU spikes and excessive memory usage can indicate the presence of malware, allowing for prompt investigation and response.
4. 
   
5. 3. Boost Efficiency and Resource Management: Carrying out a server health check improves uptime and prevents overload and crashes. It helps pinpoint resource bottlenecks and underutilized areas, enabling you to optimize server performance. When resources are well managed, they reduce operational costs and help in making budgeting decisions.
6. 
   
7. 4. Facilitates Capacity Planning: Server monitoring provides continuous insights into current resource usage and performance trends, helping organizations forecast future needs. Real-time resource tracking of usage metrics such as CPU, memory, and I/O disk usage gives your IT team a better understanding of peak usage times, ongoing load, and resource constraints, forming a reliable basis for predicting future capacity. By analysing data, you can identify trends in resource demand, such as unusual spikes or consistent growth, enabling teams to plan for capacity increase or decrease accordingly.
8. 
   
9. 5. Enhances User Experience: Your customers can better enjoy your services when there is no delay or disruption in the application or website. Proper server monitoring helps to identify potential issues and resolve them before they affect users. By tracking important metrics, you can improve your server performance and keep web applications running efficiently. This translates to faster loading times, smooth operation, and less frustration for your users.

Server Health Checks 101: Essential Metrics to Track to Prevent Server Downtime

Knowing the right metrics to track makes the work easier and enables you to make quick and better decisions. Here are the essential metrics you need to concentrate on in server health checks:

1. CPU Usage

• CPU Utilization Percentage: This metric shows the percentage of the CPU`s capacity currently in use. It helps you identify whether the CPU is experiencing high demand or has enough resources available.
• CPU Load Average: It reflects the demand for CPU resources over a specific period. If the load average is significantly high relative to the number of CPU cores, it could indicate that the server is overwhelmed.
• CPU Idle Time: This measures the time the CPU is not being used. Low idle time suggests high utilization.

2. Memory Usage

• Total memory: This metric indicates the total amount of RAM installed on the server. It serves as a baseline for understanding how much memory is in use.
• Used Memory: This indicates the memory currently used by applications, processes, and the operating system. High usage can indicate resource demand and potential performance issues.
• Page Faults: This shows the number of times the system has to retrieve data from the disk because it is not present in the RAM. An increased rate of page faults may suggest that the server lacks sufficient physical memory to handle its workload.

3. Disk I/O

• Queue Depth: This indicates the number of I/O operations waiting to be processed by the disk. A high queue depth may signal that the disk is overloaded and can't meet the demand.
• Disk Latency measures the time it takes to complete a read or write operation. High latency shows that the disk is slow to respond, and it can affect overall system performance.
• Throughput shows the amount of data being read from or written to disk per unit of time, typically measured in megabytes per second (MB/s). It lets you know how much data is being transferred and whether the disk is a performance bottleneck.

4. Network Activity

• Bandwidth usage: This helps you identify whether the network can handle the current data traffic by measuring the amount of data transmitted over the network during a specific period.
• Connection status: This will help you assess the load on the network and identify issues related to resource exhaustion or improper connection management.
• Packet Loss: This shows the number of packets sent but not received by the destination. A high rate of packet loss can severely affect application performance, especially for real-time operations.

HOW TO CARRY OUT A DETAILED SERVER HEALTH CHECK

To effectively monitor server health, a systematic approach is necessary to assess and ensure your server infrastructure's optimal performance, security, and availability. Here is a step-by-step guide to implementing an effective monitoring system:

1. 1. Establish Monitoring Goals
   
   • Identify Key metrics: Determine which metrics are critical for your server`s performance and health, such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and application performance.
   • Set Up Baselines: Know your server's usual performance levels so you can distinguish between normal operations and possible problems.




2. 2. Utilize a Monitoring Tool
   
   • Choose a Software: Choose a suitable software such as Pinghome to help you set up the appropriate metrics to keep your server running.
   • Set Up Threshold Limit and Alert System: Pick a threshold limit for all key metrics and set up the means of receiving notification if the limit is breached.




3. 3. Conduct Regular Health Check
   
   • Automate health checks: Implement regular and automated checks to monitor uptime, resource usage, and service availability.
   • Perform Manual reviews: Monitor dashboards and reports periodically to confirm all systems are operating correctly.




4. 4. Analyse and Optimize
   
   • Review Previous Data: Analyse previous monitoring data to spot trends and detect anomalies.
   • Capacity Planning: Leverage insights from monitoring to guide future resource planning and allocation.

What a Server Monitoring Tool can Help You Check

An appropriate monitoring tool keeps you updated on the following:

1. Uptime Test

Nobody likes to experience server downtime; it prevents access to the resources available on the website. The good news is that you can keep your customers connected to you by being the first to observe the issue and address it. A suitable monitoring tool such as Pinghome keeps you updated and provides you with the operational status of a server, website, or application. The goal is to ensure that users can access services without interruption.

For instance, HTTP requests show whether the server is available. This helps you identify outages or performance issues, enabling prompt resolution to minimize user impact. Uptime tests also contribute to a positive user experience by ensuring that services are consistently available.

Other methods of conducting uptime tests include:

Ping Test: Sends an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) packet to the server to check if it responds. A successful response indicates the server is online.

TCP connection Test: This test attempts to initiate a TCP connection on specific ports (like port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS) to assess service availability.

2. Dependency Test

A dependency check assesses the status of all external and internal resources that an application or service requires to function and is one of the best practices in server health checks. Dependencies can include APIs, databases, external services, and other resources.

A dependency test can provide insights into any networking problem that prevents you from connecting to external services, including DNS resolution or firewall restrictions. The test can also expose wrongly configured dependencies that can lead to failure.

Dependency tests also reveal outdated libraries or services that may require updates to maintain compatibility and security. They show the operational status of critical dependencies (APIs, databases, and microservices), letting you know if they are up and running or experiencing downtime.

If you notice more failed requests to dependencies like APIs or services, a dependency test can help identify the communication or functionality problem causing the issue.

3. Hardware Test

Your server can only function best when the software and hardware infrastructure are correctly set up. A hardware check involves assessing the physical components of a server to ensure they are working efficiently and are free from problems that could result in downtime, reduced performance, or hardware issues.

High temperature or malfunctioning of the CPU core can reduce processing speed. When the RAM is low on storage space, the system freezes, leading to poor performance. In severe cases, it can cause the server to become unresponsive or restart, disrupting your current activity and causing data loss.

Disk drives can also suffer from physical wear. A portion of them can become physically or logically damaged or, at worst, corrupted, leading to data loss. Proper server health monitoring helps you notice these issues at an early stage. By analysing past data, you'll know if to enhance your system's resource capacity. Furthermore, the fan and power supplies to the server should be occasionally monitored.

Why You Should Choose Pinghome for Your Monitoring Services

Pinghome is an all-in-one network monitoring solution that lets you monitor the performance metrics that drive growth and ensure server uptime by providing a comprehensive suite of services that includes:

• Proactive monitoring of server health


• Uptime tracking


• SSL and domain checks


• Cron Job


• API and JSON response assessments


• Keyword analysis


• Port monitoring


• Pings

Our integrated solutions empower you to optimize your infrastructure and enhance overall quality. Learn how much benefits you can derive by choosing Pinghome:

1. 1. Comprehensive Server Uptime Monitoring: You can access detailed insights into the health and performance of your servers from different environments. Our service allows you to monitor any server from any host or cloud provider, regardless of its operating system proactively.

   We provide comprehensive support for various Linux operating systems, including Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, SLES, and their derivatives. Our monitoring extends to other platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Virtual servers, ensuring a unified overview of your entire server infrastructure.



2. 2. Uptime Tracking: Pinghome offers peace of mind by consistently keeping you updated on your uptime. Our service enables you to create a real-time status page for your online service health and performance updates. The status page includes indicators of system performance, such as uptime percentages, response times, and any ongoing incidents or maintenance windows. This helps keep your customers well informed about any changes, reduce the volume of support inquiries, and enhance customer satisfaction.

1. 3. SSL and Domain Monitoring: SSL, which stands for Secure Socket Layer, assures your customers that your website is safe, and their data is well-protected. It is a security protocol that creates an encrypted connection between your web server and the users' browsers. During transmission, this protects sensitive information, such as login details and credit information.

   Pinghome helps you keep track of your SSL validity and updates you ahead of time before it expires. This makes your website more trustworthy, as you will receive a notification from Pinghome before it expires, and your users will know through their browser notifications. Pinghome also helps to monitor the health and status of your domain name to ensure that it is functioning correctly and remains secure.

1. 4. Cron Job: A cron job is a reliable way to automate regular checks and maintenance tasks that could easily be overlooked if done manually. You can schedule important tasks such as backups, updates, and system health checks to happen consistently without your knowledge.

   Pinghome informs you on the dashboard if the automated tasks are running as scheduled. It allows you to set up heartbeat monitoring, which sends periodic signals from the server to ensure that the automated task is running.

1. 5. API AND JSON Response Assessments: Your APIs are vital as they offer the IT teams the essential tools for managing, automating, and improving systems. As such, they can't be left unprotected. Pinghome allows you to customize your API monitoring experience; you can choose the JSON attributes to monitor, set conditions based on your specific requirements, and receive notifications when the responses differ from the set criteria.

   Pinghome monitors your API responses in real-time and alerts you immediately if the JSON data in your expected conditions differs. This powerful monitoring tool lets you stay updated on important information, such as stock data counts, currency rates, and temperature.

1. 6. Keyword Monitoring: Keyword monitoring is important as it can help improve your SEO rankings. Pinghome allows you to choose whether you want a keyword to appear on a specific page or not. The monitoring tool allows you to locate a word or keyword from your website easily. This helps you quickly remove a harmful link or word from your website.

1. 7. Port Monitoring: Pinghome allows you to select the port you want to monitor. You can choose the specific port associated with your mail server and receive notifications whenever there is a disruption, whether from an SMTP server or a POP 3 server. By monitoring the response time and latency of the port, you can also identify issues such as network congestion or performance bottlenecks.

1. 8. Ping: This allows you to know whether your server is available and measures how fast it responds.

Wrapping Up

Servers are the backbone of every company's operation. It must be monitored strictly and thoroughly to help prevent downtime, reduced performance, or security breaches. Pinghome offers all the monitoring demands you need in a single platform, making it easy to focus on growth without downtime.

Explore Pinghome’s all-in-one monitoring solution - start your free trial today to ensure a reliable, high-performance server infrastructure.