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When considering server monitoring software there are many questions a business must understand before purchasing. These are just a few questions but should be at the top of your list when in the market to monitor the server environment or any device sitting in the data center.

The software should be able to run custom scripts that assist the network administrator and automate processes. Many monitoring applications only report about problems but do not provide the means to react on them. Good software will provide the means to include scripts that will react and try to fix the issue automatically.

A well written monitor will allow for reaction by the application and call scripts, tasks or commands to initiate a fix or gather information. It will eliminate any delays that may occur during the notification process and stay ahead of production outages.

The software should also be capable of monitoring different operating systems. Many companies and business have multiple operating systems running depending on the purpose of the server or network computer. There might be Windows desktop computers, Linux print servers and also switches, printers, routers, firewalls and any other kind of hardware which might be monitored by server monitoring programs.

If you are going to purchase an application always consider the entire environment and how this product may help the overall existence and day to day production. If the one stop shop server monitoring software becomes to expensive make sure the one hit wonders can port to each other so logging may occur in one location.

Trend analysis is another aspect that should be included in the software to project and avoid future outages. It is common that hardware needs to be replaced from time to time but the most time can be saved by reacting before severe outages occur.

The trend analysis can be an excellent source of information to assist the network administrators in the mitigation process as they can monitor the important parameters like cpu usage, hard drive storage capacities and computer memory utilization.

If a server continues to reboot, hang, blue-screen, etc. the server monitoring software will track the time of day and what things may be running at the time of the incident. A good monitor will also graph for you periods of time so you may visually see the high cpu spikes, the systematic memory climbs or where the hard drive spacing has been allocated.

Server Monitoring software programs should also be bought with expansion in mind. There should be enough room for additional devices and services to be monitored in the future. It provides the means to ensure a good running business that reacts on problems immediately.