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Is there a check list of items to prepare a server for production?

Thanks
Pete

Hi pete, and welcome to LQ.

That question is a bit generic, and one would
have to say that it depends on the audit criteria
and IT security standards in your company.

It also makes a difference whether the server
is intra-/internet connected, and what type of
server you are running.


Cheers,
Tink

Hi Pete,

There isn't one check list, but I'm sure people can come up with some ideas if you let us know what you are going to be doing with the server.
e.g.
- which apps will be running on it?
- is the user community reasonably trusted (e.g. company employees)?
- what is the security already in place between the server and the Internet?
- what level of security do you/your management want to put on the server (ranges from wide open to tin-foil-hat-wearing-paranoid).

However, as a general rule you could try
- Check which network ports are open and making sure only the ones that need to be are open.
- Check which services are running and disable any you don't need.
- Check all the logs to make sure everything looks OK.
- Review all user accounts to make sure they are needed and have good passwords.
- Check you have enough disk space (don't want to run out just after going live)
- Make sure the boxes performance won't crumble after it goes live (seen this happen lots of times when people didn't fully understand the load box would be under in production).
- Make sure you have processes and procedures in place for dealing with problems; you know who is responsible for fixing issues with each component, you have vendor support in place as necessary.
- Be aware that you are likely to hit more problems early on than when things settle down so be set up to deal with it and set people's expectations appropriately.
- Understand the Service Level Agreements (if any). If you don't have one, find out what the expectation of service is. If the users think they are getting 24x7 and you thing you are providing 8x5 then you may have a problem.
- Do you need High Availability, Disaster Recovery and redundant hardware/power?