How to keep zombie servers from data centers?

If you ask what zombie servers do, then the answer is they do nothing. Zombie servers are unproductive servers that sit right within your data centers, consume plenty of electricity, but contribute for nothing good. In short, they eat energy, but are useless. They just keep adding to the operational cost because it consumes more power than the normal servers do. If you let it stay, you’ll definitely receive a jaw-dropping electric-bill.

How does this happen?

This topic has been around for ages now, but often goes unaddressed. Have you ever given a thought to finding out if all the servers in the server room are being used? No worries if you didn’t because it’s never been easy to track them down and there is no straightforward process to do so. The larger the data center, the more unlikely things exist.

One of the major reasons that leads to the inception of zombie servers is that user that used the server fails to decommission it. Before withdrawing the services, users must ensure to deactivate the equipment and that’s what the first step to preventing nearly dead server is.

What data centers can do to avoid zombie servers?

IT managers don’t directly approach any servers to find out what’s going on because they tend to assume if the server is lying there, it is probably operational. You can neither keep them nor discontinue it. So what’s the best way to get rid of it? The first method is rather complicated and time-consuming, which is manual checking of partially inactive servers.

Adopting the asset management approach is an alternate to the first technique that keeps a track of the hardware equipment, the company possesses. Asset management must be added to the list of company priority. Examining server functionality frequently can reduce the count of idle servers in data centers. They need to make their environment more stringent so that when a new server is included, they know about it.

Organizations keep getting plenty of advice from different sources, but ultimately it is their choice whether to take up the useful idea or not.