How to Administer a Server

If you are working as a systems administrator for a company, whether how big or small, one of your responsibilities would be to administer a server. You can also administer your own server at home if you want to share resources or documents coming from one computer which will act as a server. This article will cover only, at a high level, how to administer a Windows server.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Windows server 2000/2003
• Network connection
• Anti-virus software
• Firewall software
• Encryption
• Net back up
• Off site back up repository

1. Install the Windows Server operating system (Windows 2000 or Windows 2003). Let the wizard run choosing mostly the default or typical methods. Create proper partitions based on your server needs. Ensure that you name or set your server as part of the domain.

2. Install anti-virus software, firewall software and Microsoft windows updater. Having these three basic protections can ensure that your server will be safe from virus and hacks. Add extra encryption and security as needed. There are several software available in the market to choose from.

3. Set-up networking. Ensure that you are on the network. Go to the "Control Panel" and choose "Network Connections." There you will choose what type of connections you have set up on your infrastructure. If you are administering a server in a big company you would probably have your won LAN (Local Are Network) that is connected to an even greater or wider connection such as WAN (Wide Area Network). Make sure that you are connected to a switch which is connected to the router that is connected to the circuit. In big corporations the network side is administered by a different group, oftentimes referred to as the Network Group. The network lay-out and infrastructure should be ready before you start configuring your server.

4. Test your network connections. Make sure that you can send "pings" to the other connections in your LAN. You can check first if you can see your own IP address by going to "START>RUN>." Then type CMD. The command prompt usually a black window would appear where there is a blinking cursor. There you can type "IPCONFIG/ALL." You will be able to see your IP Address, the IP of your Subnet and the IP of your default gateway. Make sure to ping those IPs by entering ping and IP address (ex. .ping 10.22.34.7). If it returns a ping then you are on the network. Troubleshoot the connection if none of these basic tests are successful.

5. Check the network neighborhood and see if you can find other systems and workstation in your domain. Most of the workstations or computers that would need to share the server resources that you just built would need to be able to connect to the server. Ensure that proper permissions have been set up so that these members of the same domain that your server resides can gain access to the resources.

6. Manage your server by creating folders and permissions. Your server may need to act as a file and print server so ensure that when you set up the network printers that they belong to the same domain.

7. Create User, Groups, Personal Folders Group or Shared Folders and create permissions in each. Use Active Directory when creating certain permissions for these tasks.

8. Ensure that daily incremental back ups and weekly full back ups of the server are performed. You can use Net Back Up Exec to perform each task. You can also manage the back ups of multiple servers in a managed LAN by doing a back up through the network using similar software. Send the tapes weekly to an off site secure storage for safe keeping. Follow your companies SLA (Service Level Agreement) in keeping back ups. Some can be kept for 3 years or more. Keeping the back up tapes off site would ensure that if something should happen to your server and its location, you can easily recover the files. These off site tape repositories are fireproof and flood-proof.

9. Do a health check of your server on a daily basis. Perform preventative measures. Check if you still have enough disk space available. Check your page file size, do performance testing and tweaking once in a while. Perform periodic checks of the services that are running on your server. Check the error logs by going to the Event Viewer then analyze any errors or alerts as you see them.

10. Perform system maintenance and upgrade as needed. Microsoft releases a security or vulnerability patch every second Tuesday of each month, make sure that you install these patches after said release. Test your patches first in a QA or Test environment before installing on your production server. The Microsoft Windows Update can perform the updates automatically. Install these updates when the server is not in use so that your users will not lose data should you reboot the server which is often the case after patching. Other maintenance would be upgrading of the operating system service packs, firmware updates, and scheduled downtime for troubleshooting.

11. Ensure that you communicate to your users any downtime so that they can prepare to save their files so that they will not be lost.

12. Troubleshoot any problems pertaining to the server hardware, operating system, software that resides on your server, as well as user permissions, files, folders, back ups and network. Resolve the problems in a timely manner and work with vendors or other support as needed. Keep the users up to date on the status of the problems or issues so that they know when they can be back to a normal working condition.

Tips & Warnings

• There are so many books in the market to teach you how to administer a server. You can get your formal education and pass licenses so that you can work as a systems or server administrator. This article only shows a high-level this summary of a windows server administrator. There are a lot of steps and responsibilities in performing day to day complicated tasks.
• Avoid doing roguish techniques in support of your server. Make sure that you are working within guidelines set by your company or by the industry.
• Do not steal personal or user's information and then selling them. Even if you have access to these files you are not to copy or distribute them outside. There will be legal ramifications if you are caught.