When to reboot a server

[WRIGHTE]

I just wanted to ask a general query when should one reboot his server. I just know that one should reboot it the server has high load. Please correct me if I am wrong. Can you please tell what are the other reasons when its necessary to reboot the server?

[stuartb4u]

Hello,
There can be any reason to reboot the server but for hosting servers there are specific purpose.
Reasons can be one of the following.
-After critical security patch update.
-After routing IP sub-nets [not required always]
-If the Memory is blocked and Server is Not responding.
-If the server has crashed and needs rebooting with different kernel.
-To perform hardware upgrade
-Power maintenance at Data Center
-Deploying installed OS components [e.g. .net version, powershell etc]

Except above there can be events that can trigger server reboot.

[WHITE]

Originally Posted by stuartb4u

Hello,
There can be any reason to reboot the server but for hosting servers there are specific purpose.
Reasons can be one of the following.
-After critical security patch update.
-After routing IP sub-nets [not required always]
-If the Memory is blocked and Server is Not responding.
-If the server has crashed and needs rebooting with different kernel.
-To perform hardware upgrade
-Power maintenance at Data Center
-Deploying installed OS components [e.g. .net version, powershell etc]

Except above there can be events that can trigger server reboot.

Well, I have heard that some user reboot server at least once a week.

Is rebooting a server every alternate week is important ?

[LEE]

Originally Posted by WRIGHTE

I just wanted to ask a general query when should one reboot his server. I just know that one should reboot it the server has high load. Please correct me if I am wrong. Can you please tell what are the other reasons when its necessary to reboot the server?

I usually restart them when they go slow or I install an update. Yes restarting the server affects the up time of the server

[Harry]

Originally Posted by WHITE

Well, I have heard that some user reboot server at least once a week.

Is rebooting a server every alternate week is important ?

No. it's not necessary to reboot server very often(alternate week) you should avoid such unnecessary reboots which helps you to calculate uptime

[FrankT]

Just to add to this a little more,

In the past servers often suffered from issues such as memory leaks, which over time would fill up the memory of the server and slow it down until it would eventually crash.

Thankfully new operating systems are much more robust and this, for the most part, is a thing of the past. If you are running legacy programs or self developed code you may still need to do the odd reboot every now and then. Any recent apps should be ok, and if it they aren't the developers are usually quick with a patch to sort things out.

The only time you should really need to reboot your server is if you are installing updates, or additional hardware. Of course IT people are a strange breed and some prefer to do the reboots just because they have always done them in the past and don't like change.

Frank

[jamewhite86]

Rebooting a server is a very common concern among the system administrators. The dedicated servers are quite different from the usual computer systems.Thanks for share the information.

[davedj]

Originally Posted by WRIGHTE

I just wanted to ask a general query when should one reboot his server. I just know that one should reboot it the server has high load. Please correct me if I am wrong. Can you please tell what are the other reasons when its necessary to reboot the server?

Usually when the server has had a software update that needs a restart. Then there are times when you will notice too much load on the server which makes you hit a forceful reboot. I do not find a reason to reboot unless the server really requires it