General Practice for a system administrator

[markuswest]

Good Day,

What I really want to know is what things does a System Administrator need to monitor and configure on the server so that the system is optimal all the time? recently my /tmp/ folder on the root level became so full it caused problems for mysql and then my websites didn't work anymore, so I thought I need to know what should I keep my eyes on so that the system is stable.

Best Regards,
Lloyd

 

[cPanelPeter]

Hello,

That's kind of a open ended question. As a system administrator, pretty much everything has to be monitored all the time. This would include memory consumption, CPU utilization, disk space (as you have already determined), log files need to be continuously monitored for intrusion and problems, and too many things to mention.

Since servers are running constantly, they also change constantly and therefore a server can have problems at a moments notice. There is no 100% optimal setting you can configure or a program you can install that would do all that for you.

System Administration is normally a learn as you go type of education. It just takes practice and you will have issues from time to time that simply need to be resolved. I've personally been doing this for over 20 years and I still have to constantly monitor all my servers.