Computer maintenance technologies are required to enable the smooth work ing condition of our computers and servers. We all work with computers one way or the other, either ourselves or by using computer services like the internet which is a collection of computers/servers around the world.

Companies nowadays tend to have servers who are so crucial that they have to be online at all times, there is no downtime allowed, so by keeping maintaining those servers at all times, supervising them, and use computer maintenance technologies and certain condition to ensure that those servers never go down.

Companies keep IT (information technology) professionals to keep maintaining those vital servers to prevent them to ever go down and become unreachable. Those maintenance techniques include proper installations, configurations, repair skills, LAN & WAN understanding, data communication, telecommunications, and computer integration.

There are schools/colleges that teach computer maintenance technology to students who wish to become computer-integration engineers and maintain those vital servers by using their wide knowledge in computer infrastructure and integration.

Let’s go over some of the basic computer maintenance technologies:

1. Performance maintenance of computers and servers.
   • This includes installation, configuration, optimization, upgrades, identifying tools, diagnostic procedures, troubleshooting techniques, preventive maintenance actions
2. Managing operating systems.
   • This includes an understanding of client/server environment, keep the network integration of such environment intact, supervised at all times, prevent harmful events causing the system to become unstable, recovery precautions, abilities to resolve and troubleshoot problems.
3. Taking security measures.
   • This includes the understanding of security, the harmful environments out there, the amount of allowed exposure, how to block attacks, how to provide inner and outer protection against attackers and harmful programs, identifying intrusions, perform and implement preventive measures.
4. Network monitoring systems.
   • There are open-source monitoring systems and there are Microsoft windows monitoring systems that can track changes in your network capabilities, and check your server’s availability making sure you get notified in case your servers are unreachable.

• I gave some basics, just to understand what computer maintenance technologies relate to. I will have more details on the techniques on other posts, which will be covered in more detail on how to do those theoretical Ideas to use the computer maintenance technologies while keeping your organization safe from harm and damages.

Building a Linux server, is pretty easy, you just need to find a computer (any computer), then download a Linux version (any Linux version will do, just choose a server Linux edition, and you will get spared from GUI installation, if you prefer).

The process of installing the Linux server is pretty mechanical as you move through the installation instructions by pressing the “Next” button. Today when you install Linux, it will find the suitable drivers needed for your computer, and with ease, the installation process will go smoothly, and within minutes, you will have a Linux server ready for action.

I personally prefer the Ubuntu Server distribution, I guess I just got used to it, and it’s easy to use apt-get command, that let you install automatically any software packages you need, like a web application, mail application, ftp application etc… Those are easy to install, and each package has its own instructions on how to install/configure the software package you have chosen to install, usually there will be a “README” text file or “INSTALL” text file, that by following it’s instructions, command by command you will be able to install and implement the software package into your Linux server.

The basic Ubuntu Server installation package, if you do not install any suggested packages, will give you the basics, and of course define the drivers needed for the operating system to recognize and use them, like your network card. I usually like to install only the SSH software package during the installation package, the SSH enable you to log-in to the Linux server you have just installed from your own desktop/laptop without working directly on the server itself. That enables network administrators the ease of configuring the server, from their own computer after the initial Linux server installation has been completed.

The basics of software package installation, depends on the designation of your Linux server, in short it depends on your choice of what this Linux server will do for you. If it is a Linux web server, then it will need apache2, if it is a mail server, then you will need to install one of the mail software packages, like Sendmail or Postfix etc…

I will describe some examples of what packages to install for different types of servers, just as an example, I am sure you will be able to go from here, since it is mostly the same process for any software package you might think of installing. The examples are taken from the Ubuntu Linux version.

Linux Web Server
Apache2, MySQL Client, MySQL Server, PHP 5, PHP 5 – GD, PHP 5 – MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, some also include CURL and if you would like a mail service, you can install postfix as well.
In Ubuntu, the command is pretty simple: apt-get install apache2 (for installing apache2)
If you are not sure what is the exact package name that you need to install, you can just Google it, like how to install Mysql in Ubuntu, and you will get the info you need.

Video instructions for installing Apache Server:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8y51yESHyU

Linux FTP server

One of my favorite ftp Linux server is the pure-Ftpd, it’s easy to install and configure – and it is very suitable for new users.

The command will be: apt-get install pure-ftpd pure-ftpd-common
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PureFTP

Linux Mail Server
There are some basic Linux e-mail packages that anyone can use with a simple command, and there are more complicated e-mail servers for organization’s use.
The basic versions that you can easily install and use are:
postfix, sendmail – just do: apt-get install postfix / apt-get install sendmail
http://www.hypexr.org/linux_mail_server.php

As an organization’s e-mail server – I would recommend ZIMBRA Mail Server.
https://www.zimbra.com