Why Maintenance

Prevention is Better than Cure

Businesses experiencing technology problems usually call an engineer onsite to rectify the problem. If this happens regularly, businesses come to believe that their systems are being looked after. What many people don’t realise, is that when a request is made for an engineer to fix a problem, that’s usually all they do.

A decision to invest in preventative maintenance is crucial.

Maintenance on technology systems achieves two important results;

1) Prevents problems from occurring in the first place
2) Ensures that if problems do occur, the consequences are limited

Although savings in IT. costs are important, the real benefits of maintenance come from reduced down-time. For each day that computer systems are down, the cost to a business is somewhere between $300 and $1200 per day per person (and that’s assuming that no data is lost!). Given that a major technology problem might take between 2 and 5 days to resolve and for un-maintained systems, they are likely to occur more than twice a year, a Support Plan is an extremely worthwhile investment.

Synaxis Maintenance Procedures
Shown below is a summary of our Standard Maintenance Procedures - these form the basis for developing a customised maintenance procedure designed to meet the specific needs of your business.

Server(s)
	Check System, Application and Security event Logs
	Check free hard disk space
	Empty recycle bin & delete temp files
	Check RAID Array / Hard Drive Management systems
	Apply relevant Patches and Service Packs
	Check fan speed and server temperature
Network
	Check Hubs / Switches for high utilisation & data collisions
	Check Load Balancing
	Check DNS server name resolution
	Check WINS server database consistency & name resolution
	Check DHCP database consistency
	Check Router uptime
Back-Up Systems
	Test Data Restore from Previous Backup
	Check all backup event logs
	Truncate unnecessary catalogues
	Clean tape drive heads
	Update Emergency Restore Disk
Virus Protection
	Check Virus definitions & security alerts - update if required
	Check Virus scan logs
	Check or Delete quarantined files
	Check firewall log files
	Check for Internet browser and program security updates
Internet and Email
	Check administrator mail box and address any issues
	Check Postmaster Mailbox & forward undeliverable emails
	Check queues in Internet Mail program
	Check email access
	Check queues in fax server program
	Check Remote Access Service and connection times
	Check Internet connections and connected times
	Check Internet data downloads (by user if applicable)
	Check and test Internet access restrictions
	Check email policy, usage and quarantine settings
	Delete temporary internet files on server & workstations
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
	Test UPS and check configuration
	Check battery life
Workstations
	Check Free Hard disk space
	Delete temporary files
	Visit all users and resolve any problems
	Assist users with peripherals, software & hardware issues
	Check Virus Protection status
	Run a full virus scan of hard drives
	Check for program updates / patches
	Check Hard Disk Drive for Errors
	Defragment Hard Drive(s)
Users
	Maintain user profiles and user permission groups
	Manage mail boxes, email aliases, and distribution groups

Click here to see the Benefits of a Support Plan