One of the worst things that can happen to a data manager is an incident that causes server downtime. When your server is down, you may not be able to access the apps or the information you need to do your job, your clients and customers may not be able to reach your app, and worst of all, your data may become temporarily vulnerable.
Fortunately, there are some key steps you can take to restore service as quickly as possible, identify the root cause of the problem, and prevent future outages.
The Incident Management Methodology
Responding to and correcting server-related problems can be considered under the umbrella of technical incident management. Incident management is a system designed to be consistent and repeatable, so you follow the same protocols each time to address the problem as quickly as possible. This is beneficial because it reduces the possibility of improvisation (which is dangerous when you’re in panic mode), and gives you a template for improvement with each incident it’s used for. With 98 percent of organizations citing a single hour of downtime costing more than $100,000, every minute you save with incident management is valuable.
Actionable Steps to Take
Now, let’s look at the individual steps you’ll need to take when responding to a server outage:
- Identify the problem. Before you can start fixing the problem, you need to know that the problem exists. Every organization should have some kind of monitoring system in place, which will alert key personnel when something goes wrong. Every minute you spend without realizing the server is down is another minute longer it will take to get it up and running.
- Log the problem. It’s ideal to have documentation on the incident, logging who first noticed the incident, the date and time, and any important variables about how the incident unfolded. This will be beneficial in future reviews of your performance.
- Categorize the incident. What type of incident is this? Was there a surge in traffic or an unexpected load on the server? Or has some kind of physical damage befallen your hardware? This is your first glimpse into the nature of the problem, and your first information about how much it’s going to cost.
- Prioritize the next steps. Next, figure out how much damage this is going to cause, and where it’s going to cause it. You may need to shift your team’s current priorities to focus on this incident, or you may need to update key leaders and/or stakeholders about the situation.
- Diagnose the problem. Next up, you’ll need to dive deep to diagnose the problem formally. Your categorization of the problem should point you in the right direction, but now’s the time to figure out the exact trigger point and underlying causes responsible for the situation.
- Escalate the incident. If you need to, call in additional resources to assist with the situation. That may mean calling in technicians to help you correct the problem, or notifying the customer service team to keep your customers apprised of the situation.
- Resolve the problem. It may seem strange that resolving the problem is step seven in the incident management process, but at this point, you’ve managed to take care of all the prerequisites and you can move forward.
- Close the issue. Once the issue is resolved and the server is up-to-date, you’ll need to close the issue completely. This will include finalizing the restoration of the server, finishing the documents reporting the incident, updating the major stakeholders, and resetting your team’s priorities. When that’s done, you can take the time to analyze exactly what went wrong, and institute new measures designed to prevent those problems from recurring in the future.
Proactive vs. Reactive
Obviously, the preceding steps are meant to be used as a reactive strategy, giving you the power to correct an unexpected problem as quickly as possible. However, your strategy shouldn’t solely rely on reactive tactics to maintain your server’s uptime. Instead, you should more heavily rely on proactive strategies, which prevent these outages from occurring; regular monitoring, ongoing maintenance, and the early identification of potential problem areas can help you minimize the situations in which you need a reactive strategy. Still, unexpected developments have a way of showing up, and you’ll need to be prepared to respond to them when they do.
