server maintenance best practices

SERVER MAINTENANCEBEST PRACTICES

AGENDA

Anti-Virus Patches and Updates

System Reboots and

Restarts

Backups and Validations

Database Maintenance

System Review

ANTI-VIRUS ON SPOK SERVERS

• Skip List - This document is intended to serve as a guide for exclusion of folders/files from being scanned by a customer’s anti-virus software.

Example:

SPOK SERVER PATCHES AND UPDATES

Microsoft Windows

• End User Responsible• Check Spok Support prior

to implementing patches/updates.

• Stable environment for Spok services/applications.

• No assistance from Microsoft if latest patches/updates aren’t installed.

Linux

• Automated• Provided the server can

reach the Spok repository.• Kernal Updates cannot be

automated and need to be scheduled/coordinated

SPOK SERVER REBOOTS

+

• Once a month is desired, but should be at least quarterly.

• Should be coordinated along with Microsoft patches.

• Need to follow the Spok System Restart Guide.

• Ensures that users are testing their failsafe system along with redundant paging system (if applicable).

BACKUPS OF SPOK SERVERS

• Ensure that you’re backing up the correct information and that they are successful.– Database Backups (Oracle, MSSQL).– Installation/configuration directories. – Archived message directory (where applicable).

• Certain files can not be backed up as they are in production, please work with your Support Representative to assure that the correct files are backed up.

• Validate the backups to ensure that they can be recovered from.

DATABASE SERVER MAINTENANCE ON SPOK SERVERS

• MSSQL– Ensure that the database/transaction log size are

being maintained at a consistent size growth. – Verify disk space is not filling up with MSSQL

backups (.bak/.trn files). These should be purged/removed according to organizations retention policies.

–MSSQL maintenance jobs should be in implemented and running.

–MSSQL Server Patches/Updates• Important to include these along with your Microsoft

Server patches/updates

DATABASE SERVER MAINTENANCE ON SPOK SERVERS (CON’T)

• Oracle– Oracle backups and health checks are automated during time of

installation. – The database is automatically purged of archived data.– Verify disk space is not filling up with purge backups in /U01. • These should be backed up according to your organizations retention policies.

– Oracle Patches/Updates• Need to be scheduled/coordinated with Spok Support.

SYSTEM REVIEW OF SPOK SERVERS

• Questions to ask yourself:– How current and up to date is the hardware?– Am I using the best solutions to meet my

business needs?– Is a system redundancy in place to minimize

downtime/outages?– Is there a test environment to validate

updates/backups?– Do I have hardware inventory in case of failure?

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