Essential Guide

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Editor's note

Maintaining high server performance and appropriate scale to keep up with growing computing demands doesn't happen automatically. Data center administrators must continuously track performance and make the most of hardware resources. There are ways in which IT professionals can simplify server management at top performance.

Benchmark testing helps administrators monitor server resources, manage utilization, optimize performance and identify problems before they occur. Simple server configuration tweaks can squeeze more performance out of physical and virtual machines (VMs).

This guide covers best practices for benchmark testing with valuable tips from data center experts on how to improve server performance.

1Benchmark testing tool choices

Benchmark testing establishes baseline performance expectations, tracks system performance over time, plans virtualization capacity and manages server resources and performance. Benchmarks identify potential performance problems and future capacity needs.

2Benchmark testing strategies, best practices

When conducted properly and consistently, good benchmark testing can provide valuable information that admins can use to improve server performance.

3Optimize server performance

Fine-tuning server configurations and eliminating bottlenecks can lead to substantial performance gains with minimal expense. Ensuring that systems are set up correctly is especially important with virtualized infrastructures. Performance options sometimes come with trade-offs, such as cooling problems or increased energy consumption.