5 Common Types of Server Performance Issues and How to Resolve them

Imagine visiting a business website that is taking ages to load or giving you errors regarding server issues. How would you feel about that business? Your mind would automatically conjure up negative images about the business. No business owner wants their business to be seen in that context, which is why IT departments of companies strive to keep the servers up and running. In this article, you will learn about common server performance issues and how to tackle them.

Here are five common types of server performance issues that you should fix immediately.

1. Hard Disk Issues

From a sudden increase in logs to a growing number of bad sectors, from unsolicited operations on disk to aging hardware, such hard drive issues can hamper your server performance badly, potentially resulting in data loss. Thankfully, there are ways to iron out these kinks. Start off by banning unwarranted operations during business hours and shift them to non-business hours.

Use RAID for better performance and backups. Run disk defragmentation and configure log rollovers regularly to optimize hard drive performance and prolong its life. Keep an eye on important disk metrics such as available free space, read, writes and transfer speed per second, disk bytes and disk queue length. This will help you identify issues with your hardware.

2. CPU and Memory Issues

Your CPU and memory heavily influence how your server will perform. Issues such as defective hardware components, troublesome application, and service or unnecessary processes running in the background can all contribute to hampering the performance of your servers. Although server performance tools can help you fix some of these performance issues, you need to get your hardware in order too.

Keep an eye on sudden spikes in CPU and memory usage since it can lead to server crashes. Moreover, it can also result in server unavailability or high server response time, which can have negative repercussions on the user experience of your site. This is because users start to abandon your website, sending your website bounce rate skyrocketing.

Related Read: 7 Differences Between Shared Hosting and Dedicated Hosting

To solve these issues, increase application memory cache, tweak CPU priority, and optimize virtual memory. Use clustering and load balancing techniques and opt for server virtualization. If you can afford it, add more memory or purchase a faster processing package for your server.

3. Network Interface Bottlenecks

Now that we are done with hardware related issues, let’s look at some of the network issues that can disrupt your server performance. If your server is marred by many errors or has a high discard rate, packet collision, intermittent network connectivity or poor-performance of applications and services running on them might be the main culprit. Viruses, malware and spam can also disturb the bandwidth you are getting.

Check the cable connectivity, or if you have an up-to-date network interface card, sometimes a minor issue might be causing network problems, which might have slipped through the radar of your IT department. Keep an eye on event logs and system logs or change the network cables and cards when needed. Track metrics such as received or transmitted bytes, packets sent and received and bandwidth utilization. Don’t forget to check the corresponding switch port performance.

4. Power and Heating Issues

Is your server heating up more than it is supposed to? Is it consuming more power than needed? If yes, then it might be a red flag that there is something wrong with the server’s power and temperature control systems. Look for issues with your cooling system. Is it malfunctioning or not working at all? Slow fan speeds or fan breakdown is a clear indication that it needs urgent fixing.

There could be many reasons for power outages, such as a faulty POU and SMPS or poor condition of power generator or low battery of UPS. Identify the problem and resolve the issue to ensure that your server keeps running. Monitor input and output voltage, fan speed and server temperature continuously as well as the cooling unit and keep all the power equipment in good condition.

5. Virtualization Management

If you are betting big on virtualization, you must also divert more resources towards managing it efficiently, and it will prove to be a counterproductive decision. Handling physical and virtual servers can be a tricky business so you should have highly qualified IT professionals in your team who can juggle both without breaking a sweat. Resource management is key to success for virtualization management.

Make sure you don’t allocate too many resources as it will result in wastage of precious resources. On the other hand, if your apps are starving for resources, it will negatively impact performance and could bring your server down to its knees. See which apps are hogging the most resources by monitoring CPU, memory and network usage. Be aware of the security loopholes in your system. Integrating server management and monitoring tools will make our life easier.

Conclusion

Understanding the common types of server performance issues will not only assist you in dealing with them but also give you direction on how to resolve them. thus making your job a whole lot easier. Keep an eye on key metrics and take timely steps to deliver a much smoother user experience to your website visitors. Which type of server performance issues is bothering your business? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.