So, your server is hung up and you’re tempted to kick it. Before letting your frustration come to a head where you’re kicking inanimate machinery, let’s take a step back. There is so much data flying around your servers at any given time it’s astonishing.
In that massive pool of data created, less than 0.5% of it is ever actually analyzed. It flies around, takes up space, and, yes, sometimes it slows hangs up your servers. As an IT company, the amount of desperate (and furious) calls begging for server-based IT services is substantial. So, in the name of well managed IT services, we’re going to tell you why your server is hung up and causing you such strife.
Traffic
There are certain points in the day or night that the traffic to your website will be heaviest. Much like the back-end computer version of rush hour, when your server is bearing the data load of, say, 100,000 users versus 10,000 users, the server is liable to hang up easier (traffic jam). Monitoring when your traffic is heaviest makes it easier to pinpoint when other background tasks should be avoided.
Backing up your data
You’d think this is counterintuitive, but it makes a lot of sense. You need to back up your data because losing it would be disastrous to your business. However, your server is always running because your site is always running. This means backups are happening while the server is supporting the site and these two hefty jobs running together can cause a hangup.
Rare, but possible
One of the most common server complaints to any IT company holds the least water. People are always first to blame the hardware, insisting that the physical server itself is faulty. This is almost never the case. However, when hardware does fail, it does so without much warning and causes all sorts of problems. It’s difficult to prepare for this beyond consistent data backups, something that should be habitual if you care about your business (which we’ll bet you do). It’s the rarest server hang/failure, but you do not want to be caught lapsing on backups if, heaven forbid, your server hardware gives up the ghost.
We know a lot about the technology world, but sometimes bugs are brand new. Such is the nature of technology, it’s always in flux, evolving every day. These are common reasons for server hang-ups, but if you’re not sure, get the IT company on the phone and have them take a look. Try to do this before you opt for physical violence against your server.
