Server uptime is an important
metric to review in your environment. An extremely long uptime might mean that a server isn’t
responding to remote shutdown and
restart commands or has been overlooked in the regular maintenance
cycle. An extremely short uptime might
mean a server is experiencing blue
screens and automatically restarting
itself. Uptime statistics can even be
helpful in determining whether an
off-hours hotfix installation actually
took place.
Realizing the importance of
reviewing servers’ uptime statistics,
you might already be using a tool to
get this information. If you’re responsible for many servers, you’re probably
painfully aware that reviewing the
uptime statistics for many servers can
take a lot of time. To ease the burden
of this task, I wrote a script named
UptimeReport.bat. This script obtains
the uptime statistics for the specified
servers, sorts the statistics, and reports
them in a way that makes it easy for
you to see the uptime numbers that
don’t look right. You can have the
uptime report emailed to you in a
comma-separated value (CSV) or
HTML file. At the top of the report,
you’ll find the most recently rebooted
servers (i.e., those with the shortest
uptime). At the bottom of the report,
you’ll find the servers that have been
on for the longest period of time. The
report also includes a section that
specifies any servers that were inaccessible when the script ran. When
you get this script implemented in
your environment, a quick glance can
give you clues to potential uptime
problems. . . .
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