100‑Point IT Operations Checklist: From Server Health to Data Center Safety

Server Hardware Maintenance

Key checks for each server include:

Physical condition : Verify chassis integrity, indicator lights and any visible damage.

Power : Confirm redundant power modules are green, power cables are secure and PDU status is normal.

Fans and cooling : Ensure fans run without abnormal noise, clean fan grills and monitor inlet/outlet temperatures.

CPU status : Use top, htop (Linux) or Task Manager (Windows) and out‑of‑band tools (iLO/iDRAC/IMM) to check utilization and temperature (alert if >80% sustained load).

Memory status : Verify reported memory matches hardware, check usage and swap, and run dmidecode for ECC errors.

Disk status : Check disk LEDs, use RAID utilities ( MegaCLI, storcli, hpssacli) or OS commands to ensure disks are Online and not in Predictive Failure state.

Backplane and cables : Ensure SAS/SATA/NVMe connections are firm.

PCIe devices : Verify status of HBAs, NICs, GPUs in OS and device manager.

Management interfaces : Test out‑of‑band interfaces (iLO, iDRAC, iBMC) for connectivity and login.

Firmware versions : Review BIOS/UEFI, BMC, RAID and NIC firmware and plan upgrades.

Physical connections : Confirm all cables are firmly attached, labeled and not bent.

Log inspection : Review hardware logs via dmesg, journalctl or vendor tools for Critical, Error or Warning entries.

Spare parts : Verify inventory of critical components (PSUs, fans, disks).

Asset verification : Match location, tags and configuration (CPU, RAM, disks) with CMDB records.

Cleanliness : Ensure server surfaces and surrounding area are free of dust.

Screws and safety : Confirm chassis covers are sealed and all screws are present.

Network Equipment Maintenance

For switches, routers and firewalls:

Physical condition : Inspect chassis, indicator lights and any damage.

Power : Verify redundant power modules, cable connections and PDU status.

Fans and cooling : Check fan operation and noise levels.

CPU & memory utilization : Use CLI or web UI to keep usage below 70%.

Port status :

All business ports should be up/up with correct speed/duplex.

Identify and investigate err‑disable ports.

Monitor error counters ( input errors, output errors, CRC, giants, runts) for trends.

Link aggregation : Verify port‑channel members are up and no member is dropped.

Spanning‑tree : Check STP/RSTP/MSTP root bridge, port roles ( Root, Designated, Alternate/Blocking) and ensure no unexpected topology changes.

Routing protocols : Confirm BGP/OSPF/EIGRP neighbors are Established / Full and routing tables are stable.

ACL & policy : Review critical ACLs, policy‑routing and QoS policies.

Management access : Test out‑of‑band management ports and console access.

Configuration & backup : Verify running and startup configs and back them up.

Log inspection : Scan system logs for ERROR, WARNING, CRIT or FAIL entries.

Storage System Maintenance

For SAN/NAS arrays and attached disks:

Controller status : All controllers must be Online and not Failed or Degraded.

Power & fans : Verify redundant power supplies and fan modules.

Disk cabinets & disks :

Check cabinet health and link status.

Ensure each physical disk reports Online, Spare or Normal and not Failed / Predictive Failure.

Inspect disk slot LEDs.

Pool/LUN/volume status : Pools and LUNs should be Normal / Online without degradation.

RAID status : RAID groups must be Optimal; monitor any rebuild progress.

Cache status : Verify read/write cache is enabled and battery/FCWC is OK or Charged.

Front‑end ports : FC, iSCSI, NFS, CIFS ports should be Online with no error spikes.

Back‑end ports : Check SAS/FC back‑end ports to disk cabinets.

Performance monitoring : Track IOPS, throughput (MB/s) and latency (ms) against baseline.

Snapshot & replication : Verify local snapshots and remote replication are healthy.

Capacity management :

Monitor total, used and free capacity of pools/filesystems.

Alert if utilization exceeds 80%.

Management interface & logs : Ensure connectivity and review system/event logs.

Operating System Maintenance

Applicable to Linux and Windows hosts:

System load & status : Use uptime, w (Linux) or Performance Monitor (Windows) to view average load.

Critical services : Verify essential services with systemctl status (Linux) or Service Manager (Windows).

CPU utilization : Monitor with top, htop, vmstat 1, mpstat -P ALL 1 (Linux) or Task Manager (Windows); watch %idle for high load.

Memory usage :

Run free -m or vmstat to see total, used, free and cache.

Check swap usage with free, swapon -s (Linux) or page‑file usage (Windows).

Disk space : Use df -h (Linux) or Resource Monitor/ wmic (Windows) to verify mount point usage.

Large files : Identify growth with du -sh * | sort -h (Linux) or WinDirStat (Windows).

Disk I/O : Monitor with iostat -dx 1 (Linux) or Performance Monitor (Windows) for bottlenecks.

Network connectivity & bandwidth :

Check interface status and IP with ip addr, ifconfig (Linux) or ipconfig (Windows).

Monitor traffic with iftop, nload, vnstat (Linux) or third‑party tools (Windows).

Inspect TCP states with netstat -anp, ss (Linux) or netstat -ano (Windows); watch excessive TIME_WAIT or CLOSE_WAIT.

User & login :

List current users with who, w (Linux) or query user (Windows).

Review recent logins with last (Linux) or Event Viewer (Windows).

Detect abnormal or privileged accounts.

Critical process resource usage : Monitor CPU, memory and handle count of database, middleware and application processes.

System logs : Centralize and filter /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, dmesg (Linux) or Event Viewer (Windows) for ERROR, WARNING, CRIT entries.

Scheduled tasks : Verify crontab -l, /etc/cron* (Linux) or Task Scheduler (Windows) execution status.

File system health : Run fsck (Linux) or chkdsk (Windows) during maintenance windows.

Package & patch management :

Check available updates with yum check-update, apt list --upgradable (Linux) or Windows Update.

Follow change‑management process for testing and applying patches.

Time synchronization : Verify NTP service with ntpq -p, timedatectl (Linux) or w32tm /query /status (Windows).

Security configuration : Audit SSH config ( /etc/ssh/sshd_config), password policies and firewall rules ( iptables, nftables, firewalld on Linux; Windows Firewall on Windows).

Backup verification : Ensure critical configuration files are backed up and recoverable.

Database Maintenance

Applicable to Oracle, MySQL and SQL Server:

Instance status : Query SELECT status FROM v$instance (Oracle), SHOW DATABASES (MySQL) or SELECT state_desc FROM sys.databases (SQL Server) to confirm the instance is healthy.

Listener status : Check Oracle listener with lsnrctl status, MySQL process list with SHOW PROCESSLIST, or SQL Server Configuration Manager for connectivity.

Tablespace / filegroup usage : Verify free space using DBA_FREE_SPACE (Oracle), information_schema.FILES (MySQL) or sp_helpdb / sys.database_files (SQL Server).

Performance monitoring : Track sessions, logical/physical reads, cache hit ratio and lock waits; identify slow queries via AWR/ASH (Oracle), slow‑query log (MySQL) or sp_whoisactive (SQL Server).

Backup status : Confirm latest full and incremental backups succeeded, validate backup size and logs, and perform periodic restore drills.

Log files : Review alert logs ( alert_*.log for Oracle) or error logs for ORA‑ / Error messages.

Job & scheduler : Verify critical jobs (backup, statistics collection, archiving) run successfully via Oracle Scheduler, MySQL Event Scheduler or SQL Server Agent.

Statistics : Ensure table and index statistics are up‑to‑date.

Connections & sessions : Monitor active connections, flag abnormal or long‑idle sessions.

Replication status : Check master‑slave replication health (MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle DG) and latency.

Security audit : Review user privileges and audit logs for compliance.

Virtualization Platform Maintenance

For vCenter/SCVMM/Proxmox clusters and ESXi/Hyper‑V/KVM hosts:

Cluster health : Verify the management cluster is online, with no isolated hosts or errors.

Host health : Check each hypervisor for CPU, memory, storage and network alerts and confirm patch levels.

VM status : Ensure all virtual machines are powered on as expected and no VM is unresponsive.

Datastore/storage health : Monitor datastore/LUN usage, latency and IOPS; watch for APD/PDL conditions.

Network health : Inspect virtual switches, port groups and physical NIC bindings.

Resource pools & utilization : Track cluster and host CPU/memory usage for contention.

HA/FT/DRS : Confirm high‑availability, fault‑tolerance and distributed resource scheduling are operational.

Backup status : Verify VM backup jobs complete successfully and backup files are validated.

Management nodes : Check health and logs of vCenter/SCVMM/Proxmox management servers.

Firmware & drivers : Review HBA and NIC firmware and driver versions on hosts.

Backup System Maintenance

For enterprise backup solutions (disk, tape or cloud):

Backup job status : Ensure all scheduled full, incremental and differential jobs finish without errors.

Backup data verification :

Run integrity checks if supported.

Perform regular restore drills for critical data to confirm recoverability.

Backup storage capacity : Monitor usage of disk/tape/cloud targets and ensure sufficient free space.

Media health : For tape systems, check drive status, tape condition and library robot health.

Backup strategy review : Periodically assess RPO/RTO and retention policies against business needs.

Backup client status : Verify agents on all servers/applications are online.

Backup software health : Check backup server performance, logs and license validity.

Off‑site backup : Review remote replication or cloud backup status and synchronization.

Security Devices & Policy Maintenance

For firewalls, IPS/IDS, VPN and endpoint protection:

Firewall status : Check engine health, HA state, interface status and session counts.

Security policy status : Ensure ACLs, NAT, IPS/IDS and application control policies are active.

Threat detection & logs :

Review IPS/IDS alerts for recent threats.

Analyze firewall deny logs for abnormal scans or attacks.

VPN status : Verify tunnel is up and monitor user connections.

Antivirus status : Confirm definitions are up‑to‑date and scans run without large‑scale detections.

Vulnerability scan results : Review latest scan reports and track remediation of high‑severity findings.

Log audit : Examine SIEM or device logs for login failures, privilege changes, policy modifications and high‑risk operations.

ACL audit : Periodically clean expired or invalid ACL entries on firewalls, routers and servers.

Certificate status : Check SSL VPN and HTTPS proxy certificates for expiration.

Configuration backup : After changes, back up firewall, IPS and WAF configuration files.

Firmware & signature updates : Keep OS, IPS signatures and virus definitions current.

Data‑Center Infrastructure Maintenance

Physical environment checks:

Temperature & humidity : Continuously monitor (22‑24 °C, 40‑60 % RH) and stay within thresholds.

UPS status :

Check input/output voltage, current, frequency and load percentage.

Inspect battery voltage, internal resistance and estimated backup time.

Ensure UPS operates in Normal (online) mode.

Precision air‑conditioning : Verify operation, set points, supply/return temperatures, compressor/fan status and alarms.

Power distribution cabinets : Review total input, branch circuit currents, voltages, switch positions and indicator lights.

Leak detection : Confirm the system is functional, probes are correctly placed and no alarms are active.

Fire suppression : Ensure gas‑based system and smoke/heat detectors are normal; pressure gauges should be in the green zone.

Access control : Test card/biometric readers, door sensors and retrieve logs.

Video surveillance : Verify camera clarity, coverage of critical zones and proper recording storage.

Physical environment :

Maintain clean floors and rack tops, no dust accumulation.

Keep hot/cold aisles clear of obstructions.

Ensure rack doors are closed.

Labeling : Confirm all equipment, cables and circuits have clear, accurate labels.

Documentation & Process

Checklist execution record : Log date, executor, results and remediation for each run.

Exception handling workflow : Define reporting, response, escalation and resolution steps for any anomalies.

Periodic review : Conduct quarterly or semi‑annual review of the checklist to add, remove or modify items based on business changes, technology evolution and incident lessons.

Knowledge‑base update : Capture standards and common issue resolutions in the operations knowledge base.