Current Routine Maintenance Best Practices?

[gtroyp]

I have had my server running for a few years now, and knock on wood, I have only had a couple of drives go south and didn't lose any noticeable amounts of data either time. Now that we are at release candidate on V6, I was looking for other opinions on what things need to be done routinely to keep a server at tip-top shape and to catch problems early.

 

I run parity checks monthly, pre-clear drives (twice) before adding them to the array, and check in on temps routinely. Beyond this, is there anything else I should/could be doing?

 

TIA.

[trurl]

Clean fans. When the seasons change I turn the mattresses, change the central air filters, and vacuum out the computers.

[BRiT]

This is more of a means to prevent possible stress situations, but replace your data drives once they hit a certain age. I picked the 5 year mark. While the drives can survive for longerand will run u til they die, i dont ever want to be in a data rebuild situation.

 

Power supplies are also candidates to replace after a certain age as their efficiency decreases as they age too.

 

The other maintenance is the typical cleaning such as using vacuum and compressed air to remove all dust bunnies.