Tower hosts are widely used in modern data centers and are considered to be an essential part of their infrastructure. Because they are vertical computers intended to take up less floor space, they enable organizations to increase the amount of computing capacity available to them without significantly consuming more floor space.
However, as with any other hardware, tower servers are fully optimized when taken care of appropriately.
This article will help the data center managers, IT support staff and systems administrators obtain the maximum out of the tower servers using the 11-step checklist outlined below.
Step 1: Replace Unreliable Parts
Tower servers can last for a very long time; most can run up to 5+ years before requiring a major overhaul. Nevertheless, elements such as the CPU, the RAM, the hard drive storage, and expansion cards can get old and cause performance issues.
Make sure to find out the age of the motherboard, processors, and/or RAM modules. Replace any parts that are getting old and are soon likely to become technologically obsolete. That way, your tower is protected against aging parts that could potentially limit the capabilities of your rig.
Step 2: RAM Efficiency Increased
The amount of RAM a server can have depends on how many virtual machines and apps it can host. Most types of towers have a specified maximum amount of RAM that they will support; consult the paperwork that came with your tower to find out if this is the case with yours.
If the tower that you use does not come with the maximum amount, it is recommended that you get one. With this single upgrade, the computing power of your equipment is multiplied.
Step 3: Upgrade the Hard Drive With Higher Capacity
The local hard drives of a tower save virtual machine images, applications, logs and databases, among others. Enterprise- or NAS-grade hard drives are faster and more reliable in terms of their rotational speed than their consumer-grade counterparts.
They also contain much larger storage capacity than the average hard drive. Increasing the capacities of drives enables increasing storage pools, and thus more data can be stored directly on towers.
Step 4: Add Redundant Power Supplies
The inability to supply power is perhaps one of the most relatable problems that accompanies tower hosts. By adding a redundant power supply system, this is eliminated, increasing the system’s dependability. It also comes in handy, for instance, if you have to conduct maintenance on a certain PSU and hence pull it offline. Redundancy of power helps to minimize chances or instances of interrupting the power supply or making it non-reliable.
Step 5: If Cable Management is Poor; Improve It
In data centers, cables dangling disrupt the flow of air, which is detrimental to the circulation of air around the components. Tuck the cables under the edges and fasten them with clips, bands, or even Velcro. This enhances cool air circulation and also helps in isolating areas that need to be traced during fault diagnosis. Cable management, which should be done effectively, can have an impact on a computer’s thermal efficiency.
Step 6: Expansion Cards Upgrade
They can also use PCIe expansion cards to upgrade performance and features that the tower may lack. If your towers incorporate older cards, replace them with the current generation cards, especially with faster bus interfaces. This enhances the efficiency of additional add-ons such as storage controllers, GPU accelerators, and networking interfaces.
Step 7: Replacing the Fans With Those That Have a Higher CFM Rating
Going by the above description, it is evident that the cooling of the tower server depends on system fans and internal air circulation. If your servers get warm to the touch, replace equally ineffective stock fans with higher CFM fans that blow more air. High-airflow fans allow for lower internal temperatures for stability benefits and longer-lasting hardware.
Step 8: Make Sure to Apply Thermal Compound
Data center servers have processing units called CPUs and chips that create a lot of heat. Thermal grease or compound makes sure this heat migrates to the towers’ external cooling mechanisms. It changes or becomes less effective over time as an existing compound within food particles and cooking equipment. Pull the side panel off of your tower and make sure that all CPUs have fresh thermal paste on their heatsinks. This returns rapid heat transfer to the assembly.
Step 9: Update Firmware and Drivers
As with any peripheral or hardware equipment, towers also depend on firmware and drivers. But updating them is something that can be overlooked rather often. Visit manufacturers’ sites and ensure that one updates BIOS, BMC firmware, RAID controller programming, and device drivers to the most recent. Firmware upgrades make your device compatible with new and more secure applications, while driver updates unveil new functionalities.
Step 10: While installing the RMS, Ensure an Active Internet Connection
It is imperative for administrators to keep track of tower server healths without having actual physical access to data centres. Connect applications such as the IPMI tools that are used in health monitoring, telemetry metrics, power controls and remote troubleshooting. This enables full oversight of the servers from anywhere.
Step 11: Make Sure You Have the Right Environment in Your Data Center
Even if the tower could be highly optimized and adaptive to its environment and load, adverse data processing center conditions reduce reliability and throughput. Prevent towers from being exposed to excessive humidity, heat, and dust. It is also important to ensure that an adequate flow of air around the equipment is provided so that heat buildup may easily dissipate. The reliability of conditions in data centers is crucial.
Conclusion
It is important to note that upgrading to pay more attention to these 11-step checklists will cost some upgrade expenses and personnel time. But optimized tower servers are more stable, faster, more expandable, and better concerning their thermal management. Optimized towers enable supporting additional virtual machines, improving application performance, and increasing the mean time between failures. Just as it is unfortunate to have limited capability and unreliable assets, data center operators who ignore the opportunities to optimize tower servers are likely to face the consequences of limited capability and unreliable assets.
