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It’s human nature – at least most people’s – to do nothing when everything is going well, or at least it seems like it…
Even that same majority will say: “But why should I do anything or worry, if everything is working properly?”.
This posture makes sense and is understandable, however, this type of idea makes those who think like that, leave prevention aside and that in our case, is linked to avoiding errors and problems on the site or worse, that it stays out donate!
Yes, because a variety of errors and problems on many websites can be avoided or at least identified before they occur and that’s what we’ll be dealing with today.
What is preventive website maintenance?
The most prudent and concerned, before a long car trip with the family, usually stop by the workshop and ask their trusted mechanic to check that everything is ok, after all, they do not want to jeopardize the safety of those on board or even having spoiled the ride because of a mechanical failure in the middle of the way.
Likewise, it is possible to carry out preventive maintenance on a site, checking not the general state of parts and their operation, but many points that are essential for the operation of a site.
There are many indicators that, just like in a vehicle, show us that some measure needs to be adopted.
And sometimes, it’s not just the website. E-mail is an important resource and if it stops working, it can bring even bigger headaches, depending on the dependence and use that the company makes of it.
To carry out problem prevention, our approach will be to create a roadmap or checklist of things that must be checked periodically.
How often?
Monthly is enough for most cases and can avoid hassles and periods of unavailability that can even be expensive for the company.
Roadmap / checklist for preventive maintenance of the site
Although generically we are dealing with the website, it is necessary to keep in mind that there are a number of related aspects, such as the domain and the hosting account.
If the domain becomes unavailable for any reason, nothing that uses it (email, FTP, database, etc.) will work.
Therefore, we are going to divide this checklist into groups of checks that must be done and that are not restricted to the site itself.
1. Domain
As mentioned, in addition to accessing the site itself, either by typing the URL – which uses the domain – in the address field of the browser, or through a link, e-mail, FTP, database, webmail, etc. the domain is functional for them to work.
What types of problems might there be related to the domain?
- Renewal – domain registration renewal is done annually and when it expires, if it is not paid, it is frozen, leaving everything that depends on it, inaccessible. Keep contact address for renewal with an account that is verified regularly;
- Blacklist – There are a number of blacklists that can include domains and IP addresses of the servers that host a domain, for reasons such as sending SPAM and the presence of malicious content. There are many online tools that do this type of verification, such as the MXToolBox. You know the IP of the server your website is hosted on, in the control panel;
- DNS – Editing a domain’s DNS zones determine which IPs/servers each service responds to. Configuration errors or outdated data can make the corresponding service inaccessible. You can check this in your hosting account’s control panel.
2. Control Panel
The hosting control panel is the service’s most powerful tool, in which almost all available resources are concentrated, such as creating and editing email filters, PHP versions and their configurations and extensions, CMS administration, subdomains and addon domains, among many others.
In the most complete control panels, such as cPanel, there is also a series of information that allows identifying problems or the imminence of them happening, such as:
- Traffic – not just traffic, but bandwidth and which are indicators of how much data in GB (Gigabytes) is being transferred. These values represent the sending and receiving of e-mail, files transferred via FTP, accesses to the website, etc. If your plan’s limit is reached, every operation involving data transfer from the server will be stopped;
- IP address – in many panels, such as cPanel, the last IP that accessed is registered. In this way, it is possible to know if there was an access that was not made by the administrator of the account;
- Database – there are limits in many services, regarding the maximum size of each database and that in case they are dynamic, that is, that have their size changed according to use, if the stipulated limit is reached, all services that use the database in question, they will show an error;
- Disk space – this is another piece of information that appears on the panel and must be checked, as reaching the disk space limit also produces errors, as new data cannot be recorded in the account (eg, receipt of e-mail ) or even changed. Disk space is used by the website, database, email, and other resources;
- CPU, processes and memory – the use of service processes (PHP, MySQL, etc.), CPU utilization (processing) and RAM memory allocation, refer to computational resources (of the server) that the hosting account makes use of sending and receiving e-mails, consulting databases, visiting websites. Operating close to the limit or reaching it can produce slowness and inaccessibility, respectively. When this occurs frequently, it is indicative that a plan better suited to the account requirements is needed;
- SSL certificate – it has been highly recommended for some time that websites have an SSL certificate installed, meaning that their access will be made using a secure protocol (HTTPS). The absence of SSL or one that is expired does not produce inaccessibility, but in most browsers it will produce a risk alert regarding access, scaring away visitors;
- Errors – There is also an icon in cPanel that displays pages with errors to the web server – the page display service. It is possible that errors are occurring in specific pages or in their resources and that, for this reason, they do not work.
3. Statistics
The control panel of most hosting services contains statistics tools. However, they can also have specific access or be part of a custom service or even be a feature of a CMS and for this reason we do not include them in the control panel indicators.
Statistics tools can also vary greatly, both in terms of what data is provided, the way it is presented, and even the names given. Therefore, it is necessary to make a different assessment depending on the tool.
Regardless of the particularities mentioned, the types of data that must be observed are:
- Visitation – large variations or deviations from the average, can indicate abnormalities, such as attack attempts, invasion, malicious content. In these cases, it is important to compare the contents of the account with a backup copy of the website;
- IP addresses – in conjunction with the data above, analyzing the IP addresses that access the website can also be an indication of irregularity. There are online tools that allow you to know with some proximity the geographic location of an IP, such as IPLocation It is geolocation. That is, if there is a reasonable number of accesses by IPs from other countries, as long as it is not an international site, it may be a sign of problems;
- Traffic – analyzing traffic can give clues about possible problems, such as a page that is accessed much more than most. If there is no reason for the imbalance, it is recommended to check if there are any vulnerabilities or flaws that can be exploited;
- Entry/exit pages – these are the pages through which visitors arrive at the website and the last page visited respectively. As with traffic, if there is no justification for a page to be the main access route to the site, when what is expected would be the home page, one should also investigate. Note that hits originating from search engines can lead visitors to any page, but an excess compared to other pages should not be common.
4. Logs
Files known as logs are text files with records of actions that took place and in this case, in the hosting account, just like the logs of any operating system.
Depending on the platform or CMS used to create your website, there may be different logs that register from accesses made to the administrative area, errors on certain pages or their resources. It is worth noting that an error in PHP does not necessarily translate into an error in displaying the corresponding page.
For example, the script associated with a form on the website may fail and the error still not be displayed to the visitor.
Therefore, analyzing the logs helps and identifying “invisible” errors or that may even be detectable in accesses, but it would require testing the entire site frequently.
Logs can also be useful for viewing information that does not appear in statistics or on the dashboard. It will depend on the platform used and if it was configured to record this type of record.
5. CMSs
The most powerful and most popular CMSs, such as WordPress, can also be a means of obtaining valuable information about what is happening on the site.
Therefore, it is important to know the administration panel well. Through it, many show the availability of updates for both the core application and the installed plugins.
It is also possible to know the dates of the last modifications / updates, installations, system requirements (versions of services such as PHP, libraries, database, memory, etc.), the last access made by the administrator and even errors of some component.
It should be noted that although it is recommended to configure the CMS for automatic updates of the application and plugins, this does not always guarantee that they will occur, both due to possible errors on the local or remote server, as well as the possible need to carry out additional procedures, such as updating the version of PHP or enable a certain library.
Therefore, always compare the installed versions with the latest ones available.
6. Hosting notifications and reports
Always pay attention to notifications and reports issued by your hosting (hosting company).
To do so, it is important to register an email account that the person in charge uses frequently, as all good hosting companies use email notifications as the first and main means of communication, informing about scheduled maintenance in the infrastructure, updates , occurrences of various natures, renewals and payments.
Many companies in the sector, as well as HostMídia, act preventively, which means that they have permanent investigative procedures to try to detect irregularities and failures that may affect an account and the hosting environment. In our case, when our technical team identifies any problems, it is through an e-mail communication that we inform the responsible person and the necessary measures.
Conclusion
Through a set of simple and accessible measures and procedures, it is possible to prevent errors and problems on a website and their consequences.
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