Preventative Maintenance

We all know that we should change our car’s oil every three thousand miles but when dealing with computer systems, not everyone knows what sort of preventative maintenance should be done. With that in mind, here are a few items that everyone should consider when planning a general system maintenance schedule.

Workstation and Server Maintenance

• Defrag ALL the drives. Do this on both the workstations AND the server.
  

• Check the Windows Event Logs. Look for Errors and Warnings. To check Event Logs, right click on My Computer and select Manage. In the Computer Management screen select the Event Logs and check both System and Application.
  

• Every month clean the dust filters for all machines. If you workstation has a cover with a fan filter - take a few moments to remove the plastic cover and remove the filter.  If the workstation is in a control room with carpet you will find that they get dirty very fast.  These filters keep dust out of the machine and keep the air circulating.




• While you are checking the filter, While doing this, are there any funny noises emitting from the machine? Does the airflow out of the back of the machine seem to be ok? If you are able to look inside - check the fans themselves. Are they spinning freely?

• How are the machines doing? Is that Adobe or Cool Edit machine running low on disk space yet? Does the machine need more RAM?  
  

File Cleanup

• Clean out old files. Do you really need the playlists and import files from a month ago? If you think you might need them, copy them to another place or off to a disk.  This also applies to ASPLAY files and any other type of logging file.

You can look at using the CleanUp.exe application found in the \DAD\Progs\CleanUp directory to archive or delete old files.


• What about old audio files. Yes we all know that Client X might want to run this same spot next year. It might be best to just drag and drop that cut out of the DAD Library onto a USB Drive and let the Account Rep keep track of the file instead of just leaving it in the DAD Library. Most often, these old files are forgotten about and simply just hang around taking up space.

Backups

• If Gateway/Dist is used, check the size of the C:\GATEWAY\CUTSAUX.DBF. If this file is getting large (say 20 megs or so), use the Gateway Setup option to Delete CutsAux on Exit. When Gateway exits it will remove the file. It will be recreated when Gateway starts back up.  Gateway will then start scanning everything and copy any files that need to be transferred.  If anything was missed, it will now be backed up.





• Speaking of Gateway, check your backups. You DO HAVE some sort of a backup plan right?  If nothing else, get an external USB drive and manually copy your \DAD and \CUTS directories. Having some sort of backup will help immensely if and when a serious problem occurs.  While we are here, have you thought about backing up the Gateway rules? Copy all the *.DBF’s in the \GATEWAY directory to a disk for safe keeping.

I would also suggest making notes of what is ‘normal’ for the machines.  This way, if you see a machine that has it’s CPU utilization running at 60% all the time you will know whether this represents a departure from the norm. Knowing the ‘proper’ or ‘average’ readings for a machine can help you determine if you are having a problem.

Please remember that these are guidelines and you might need to check these more often.  You should also consider keeping some sort of a logbook or clipboard that is easy to find.  I used to keep a clipboard in my server room. It had a network map with all the machine names, IP Address and connection port numbers for easy quick reference. I also kept a record of what sort of maintenance was done. If a hard disk was replaced I logged the date, type of drive and reason for failure.  The same was done for software upgrades. I kept notes on when it was updated and from what version. Even notes about backup dates or incident reports from users are handy.

Everyone keep records of when they changed tubes, tower lights and transmitter readings. It only makes sense to keep records of the network system. You digital audio system is just as important as your transmission equipment. 

Preventive maintenance is not always at the top of everyone’s to-do list. It’s not uncommon for folks to only think of these things when something happens. With a bit of general planning, downtime can be limited to short periods if not totally eliminated.