Server administration

There are three things equally vital for proper operation of servers – hardware, software and administration.

A qualified administrator is of no less importance as quality hardware or reliable software. What’s more, a good administrator will manage to ‘squeeze’ the most possible performance from both hardware and software, smooth away their imperfections, prevent most failures.

It’s easy to tell a good administrator from a bad one. A good administrator is, so to speak, ‘neither seen nor heard’ – but everything works perfectly. A good administrator prevents problems – a bad one is constantly solving them. A good administrator manages to avoid incidents – a bad one tries to mitigate their after-effects.

With our administrators, all preventable problems will be prevented and avoidable incidents avoided. Should some indivertible problem occur, our administrators will do their best to solve it before it seriously affects operation of the server.

Our company is 12 years old – for IT industry it is a mature age indeed. During these years our team’s ‘collective intelligence’ has gained plenty of unique experience in remote Linux, FreeBSD, AIX and Windows system administration, so our experts are unlikely to be confused by some complex or non-trivial problem. They really are able to ensure stable and reliable operation of any web project – from a single server to complex cluster systems.

What does Supportex team do to achieve top performance and reliability of the servers?

• Sensible optimization

Our experience shows that such simple thing as correct configuration and setting aimed at the Client’s specific needs boosts server performance, helps use its resource most efficiently. Our administrators do know how to deal with high-loaded servers and systems. For every project they carry out optimization at all levels, from web app to system kernel and web stack, lowering the risk of failure due to peak load.

• Constant Monitoring

Monitoring is performed round-the-clock, with check interval starting from 60 seconds. It helps to detect the slightest signs of a problem which is going to occur, so appropriate measures can be taken in time. As soon as we determine the possible cause of the error, we begin to eliminate it. You will be instantly notified about the incident in a way you specify – by email, or jabber, or phone. If the problem is caused by, for example, database fault, we will contact your service provider ourselves to sort it out.

• Doing all routine procedures carefully and on time

Everything should be done properly and on time. For our team it isn’t a cliche – it is a guide to action. Custom setting of hardware and software helps to avoid failures which are otherwise inevitable. Security audit at all levels – from web applications to the entire system, installing all updates and patches as soon as they are released, setting firewalls, will make servers considerably safer. Regular backup will guarantee that valuable data won’t be irretrievably lost. Day after day our specialists do plenty of routine work for the only purpose – to make your servers work perfectly. Our administrators do their best to prevent the problems that could be prevented, and quickly mitigate after-effects of those that couldn’t.

• Security above all

Unfortunately, there are things beyond administrators’ control – failures could be caused by, for example, bugs in software, patches for which haven’t been released yet. Data breaches can occur due to insiders’ actions or plain neglect. Probability of a DDoS attacks or a hack can be reduced but not eliminated completely. Our administrators are doing their best to minimize the risk.

• Backup of data

Regular backup is an only measure that ensures that your data will never be lost irretrievably. The one who neglects backup completely or performs it irregularly, faces a risk of losing valuable data due to his own carelessness.

• 27/7 support

Members of our highly qualified support team work round-the-clock to help you deal with any problem that might arise. You can contact them at any time through the contact form or via email info@supportex.net.

Server administration includes lots of tasks, among them are:

• web server administration and optimization (Apache, lighttpd, nginx, etc);
• DNS server administration (BIND, PowerDNS);
• mail server setup and tuning, protection against spam and malware (Sendmail, Exim, Postfix);
• database server setup and administration (Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL);
• setup ftp server;
• load balancing setup for high-loaded systems, cluster solutions based on Pacemaker/Corosync, DRBD and cluster file systems;
• installation of updates and patches;
• security audit, custom security measures and server-side firewall solutions;
• setup of backup solutions and data recovery.