Server Failure: How to Avoid Data Loss & Downtime

With the constant worry about downtime, many businesses have forgotten hardware in favor of software. This can be an expensive mistake as disasters like storms or hacks take down vital systems damaging not only your data but your company’s image. Therefore, learning how to prevent server failure and avoid its consequences – data loss and downtime – is a key factor to keep your business functioning.

Data loss and downtime jeopardize your company’s integrity. Once you get a bad reputation your clients can lose their trust in your business and it gets harder to acquire new ones.

Understanding what factors affect your server and data storage is how you can know which data loss prevention best suits your needs. For example, if your server has a high chance of power outages, you must know how to avoid its failure and what you can do to preserve the data on it.

Top Summary: Protecting your server can help you avoid its failure. But you can’t stop it from happening. And, for this, you must also know how you can avoid data loss and downtime, even if you have a server failure.

Major causes of server failure

Server failure can cause data loss, although it’s not the only factor for that. Also, they are a reason for downtimes. These two are bad news for your company. It not only causes delays in your schedule but also creates a bad image with your clients and prospects. 

To keep your business integrity, you must know what can cause a server to fail and how you can prevent it.

Overheating

Your server will normally heat as it’s powered. Therefore, you must make sure it keeps the proper functioning temperature. Heat damages electronics and can lead to complete failure. Keep the server room cool and control its temperature.

Hardware issue

Damage to a disk can cause the system to fail. It can be a cable, a cooling system, or any other part of the server. And this gets easier to happen the older your equipment is. 

Unclean server room

Your server can fail due to dust or debris buildup on it. To avoid it, make sure the server room is, if not sterilized, as clean as possible.

Power Outages

Power spikes or loss both can cause server failure. You can provide energy with an independent source, such as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), and keep the energy stable under any condition. It doesn’t need to last forever, just enough time to securely shut down.

Cyberattack

Cybercriminals can access your server if you leave it vulnerable. The best way to avoid it is to use a good and updated security service.

Natural disaster

Thunderstorms can negatively affect your server, but they are easy to track and avoid the damage caused by them, just by providing resources such as a backup generator to avoid sudden power loss.

But, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters are harder to prevent their actions against your server. The best way is to have emergency plans for the most likely disaster your business can face. 

Summary: In any scenario that can cause server failure you always have the possibility to recover data as you keep an updated backup of your server data. And, most causes are easy to prevent with attention and investment. 

How to avoid data loss and downtime after server failure

Even a protected and preserved server can present failure. Mistakes can happen as humans are not flawless, and neither is technology. So, as an entrepreneur, it is essential you know what you can do to preserve your data and avoid downtime in case of server failure.

Use the right Relational Database Management System

A relational Database Management System (RDBMS) helps to keep your business running smoothly. As you grow, so does its need for scalability and performance- which is why an appropriate RDBMS will limit chances of corruption or downtime caused by improper software updates. Carefully research all options before making any final decisions about what type of server best suits your needs.

Use the Right Hardware

The most important thing to remember when choosing hardware for your business is that you need a server with enough power. Virtual servers offer scalability and dependability, so this might be best if the size of data sets or high availability requirements are too much for onsite systems. 

Hardware that is designed to withstand several hard drive failures can be expensive, but it’s worth the investment. When your business needs constant access and functioning of its databases you need hardware with high availability so as not to compromise on performance or data integrity in case anything was ever falling short-circuiting activity entirely

Make regular backups

This might sound obvious but many businesses don’t keep regular backups. They depend entirely on system redundancy and only create occasional archives of critical databases, which is a serious oversight as your business needs to back up its data at least once per week. 

Multiple hard drive failures can push you past the point where there’s nothing left in reserve for when disaster strikes. Corruption or other issues will ensure that everything gets lost too unless you’ve taken action beforehand.

Have a data recovery plan

Data loss is a common occurrence in the business world. It’s important to know how you can best deal with data breaches and avoid downtime for your company. But it’s also crucial not to forget about all the other factors that play into successful recoveries from these unfortunate events.

The key lies within the preparation. Build a data recovery plan and keep a part of your emergency budget only for it.

Summary: From this list, the most effective data loss prevention action you can take is to keep updated backups of your business data. But, choosing the right server and storage solution can not only avoid data loss but also prevent you from spending too much on a server that doesn’t fit your business purposes.

Important: Don’t try to fix your database by yourself. It puts your data at risk, and oftentimes the software isn’t equipped for this type of repair. If you have a failed server, look for professional help immediately.

At any moment you can request help from SalvageData’s experts who will know exactly what the next steps are.