You’re managing a complex IT infrastructure. What are the best server management tools to help you succeed?

1 What are server management tools?

Server management tools are software applications that enable you to access, control, and manage your servers and other IT components remotely. These tools can help you monitor the health, status, and performance of your servers and networks, configure and update settings, software, and security, troubleshoot and resolve issues and errors, optimize server resources and efficiency, automate repetitive tasks, and generate reports and alerts. By using server management tools, you can save time, reduce costs, improve reliability, and increase productivity.

2 What are the benefits of server management tools?

Server management tools can provide you with many benefits, such as increasing visibility and control over your IT infrastructure, reducing the risk of downtime, data loss, and security breaches, improving scalability and flexibility, simplifying compliance and auditing requirements, and boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, server management tools can help you cope with the challenges of managing a complex IT infrastructure, such as dealing with heterogeneous and distributed environments, supporting legacy and modern systems, integrating with other tools and platforms, and adapting to changing business needs and demands.

3 What are the features of server management tools?

Server management tools can range in features and functionalities, depending on your needs and preferences. However, some essential features you should look for include remote access and control, a user-friendly dashboard and interface, monitoring and alerting capabilities, configuration and automation options, troubleshooting and optimization tools, and reporting and analysis capabilities. With these features, you should be able to access your servers from anywhere and at any time with a web browser or mobile app. You can also view and manage your servers and networks from a single dashboard. Additionally, you can monitor various metrics such as CPU, memory, disk, network, uptime, load, temperature, etc., configure settings with scripts, templates, policies, schedules, etc., troubleshoot server performance with diagnostics and logs tools, generate reports on server activity and performance trends, etc.

4 What are the types of server management tools?

Server management tools can be classified into different categories based on their scope and purpose. General-purpose server management tools, such as SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, ManageEngine OpManager, and Zabbix, are designed to manage multiple types of servers and systems, like Windows, Linux, and Unix. Specific-purpose server management tools, like Apache GUI, MySQL Workbench, and AWS Systems Manager, are tailored to manage specific types of servers and systems. Finally, open-source server management tools like Nagios, Ansible, and Puppet are developed and maintained by a community of developers and users at a low cost. All of these tools provide a comprehensive solution for your IT infrastructure.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?