How to upgrade a server to boost performance
There comes a time in every business server's life where it's no longer fit for purpose. Rather than throw the old one out and start again, upgrade a server and you'll find that it can be a cost-effective and efficient way of prolonging a server's life while meeting your business requirements.
In this article, we're looking at the types of upgrades that you can make to your servers and the benefits of each. Most servers, such as the Asus range of rack and desktop models, have plenty of room for upgrades.
RAM
RAM doesn't make your server run applications quicker, but more memory has several benefits. First, it means that more applications can be held in memory at once, which can be beneficial for high-load servers or those used in virtualisation. Secondly, more RAM makes it faster for servers to handle large datasets and perform complicated processing.
If your servers are maxed out and don't have any spare memory (or you're actively getting error messages), more RAM can give you that breathing space that you need.
Depending on how much RAM came with your servers, it's likely that you'll have free slots. Check your server's manual and support site carefully to see the amount and type of RAM that's supported.
CPU
Upgrading a single processor to a slightly faster model won't make much difference, but adding a second CPU to a server could double your processing power.
Servers, such as the Asus ESC4000 G4S, ship with dual CPU sockets. If you only fill the first socket when you commission the server, you've got an efficient way of increasing performance later on.
STORAGE
Adding more storage can help a server deal with large datasets or new applications. But, upgrading to solid-state storage (see SSDs vs HDDs for more information) can make your servers faster to respond, and make applications load more quickly.
OTHER UPGRADES
Asus builds many of its server products with optional upgrades to add new features. For faster networking and additional bandwidth, the E8 and E9 series servers can take the MCI-10G/82599-2S or MCI-10G/X550-2T 10Gbit Ethernet cards.
The ASMB9-iKVM upgrade kit brings IPMI 2.0-compliant management to many servers. The OS-independent platform lets you manage and monitor server systems from anywhere in the world, including temperatures, voltage and fan status. And, with KVM support, you can remote control your servers, too.
