For today's businesses, robust server infrastructure is the backbone of managed service provider (MSP) operations—hosting critical applications, storing essential data, and enabling seamless communication. Effective server management is therefore essential for optimal IT performance and business continuity. MSPs can leverage remote monitoring and management solutions like ManageEngine Endpoint Central MSP to provide comprehensive server management services. By centralizing server monitoring, update deployments, and maintenance tasks, MSPs can gain real-time insights, proactively address potential issues, and minimize downtime for their clients.
Manage the server lifecycle
Proper setup of server devices is crucial for establishing a stable foundation for MSPs and to deliver reliable services. Endpoint Central MSP enables administrators to provision new servers by installing necessary operating systems (OSs), configuring hardware and software components, and allocating resources such as CPU, memory, and storage. This process ensures that the servers are ready to handle various workloads efficiently.
Since different servers often run different operating systems, technicians generally maintain separate caches for each OS to ensure compatibility and proper management. This adds to an MSP's administrative burden and requires more resources and efforts. Endpoint Central MSP simplifies this process and streamlines operations by providing a unified caching server that supports multiple operating systems, and centralizes the storage and distribution of OS updates, patches, and software packages—all of these for the diverse set of clients being managed.
Patch management tailored for servers
- Rigorous testing needs
Servers have unique configurations and dependencies that require the patches to undergo rigorous testing and validation to ensure compatibility with existing software, hardware, and configurations. Endpoint Central MSP enables MSPs to test the patches on test groups to eliminate the possibilities of compatibility issues before deploying them to the servers.
- Absolute flexibility and control
System admins have to deal with several constraints while managing server patches. Servers typically have designated maintenance windows for patching that are determined based on each client's non-business hours to minimize disruptions. Working within these limited windows can be challenging, especially for servers hosting critical business applications that require continuous uptime. Adding to the time issues, servers have unique patching needs that often require actions to be executed based on specific patching workflows and the timing of configuration schedules that must cater to each of your client's operational needs. To efficiently manage IT infrastructure and business operational needs, server admins frequently request more control over the server patches and configuration schedules.
Endpoint Central MSP provides a client self-service portal that shifts the control of patch management to end users rather than the technicians, thereby improving operational efficiency. The client self-service portal empowers end users with flexibility to patch server components on a schedule that minimizes disruptions to their business operations. This approach alleviates the burden on the technicians, allowing them to focus on other critical tasks.
- Simplified collaboration between technicians and end users
Often, technicians face challenges while patching servers due to their dependency on the end users, who will have to confirm the servers are eligible for patching. While it is the MSP's responsibility to ensure that the patching requirements are met in compliance with industry regulations, it is the end users' responsibility to ensure that the new patches do not disrupt the functionality of their critical systems or cause business downtime. To ensure both teams maintain their responsibilities, organizations follow processes involving multiple approvals and authorizations.
To enable smooth collaboration between these teams, Endpoint Central MSP integrates with Zoho Creator. The integration simplifies multi-level approval workflows and enables the automated creation of a patch deployment draft based on the approvals received.
- Nuanced patch-version control
Different patch versions introduce changes that could impact the server stability, compatibility, or security posture. Server admins need granular control over the patch versions to tailor patching strategies specifically to their unique requirements and environments.
With Endpoint Central MSP, system admins can:
- Decline patches if testing reveals incompatibility issues caused by new versions.
- Retain superseded patches for up to three months, in case a rollback is necessary.
- Revert to a known good state in case of unprecedented issues.
- Create workflows with pre- and post-deployment checks for assured stability.
Remote monitoring and maintenance
Regularly monitoring the health of server infrastructure is crucial for early identification and remediation of potential issues, ensuring the availability of critical IT services. Server admins can respond promptly and perform diagnostic tasks, such as checking logs or restarting services. They can further use Endpoint Central MSP's remote troubleshooting toolkit to execute remote remediation actions like modifying server configurations or applying patches to address the underlying issue.
IT automation
Automation is the key to improving IT efficiency and enabling MSPs to focus their resources where they are needed—rather than on mundane, repetitive tasks. Server admins can choose from over 350 out-of-the-box script templates within Endpoint Central MSP to automate everyday processes and workflows. For unique business-specific scenarios, server admins can customize scripts to meet their clients' needs. For automating redundant tasks associated with patching servers, Endpoint Central MSP enables technicians to define their deployment policies before and after the patch deployment with settings and scripts. For example, system admins can check whether the backup server is ready before shutting down the primary server for patch deployment.
Cybersecurity
- Vulnerability detection and remediation
Endpoint Central MSP provides panoramic visibility—across apps, web servers, database servers, OSs, and browsers—for comprehensive vulnerability detection. Going beyond the detection of missing patches, Endpoint Central MSP also detects the presence of risky software (like peer-to-peer, end-of-life, and RDP-enabled software), the presence of unauthorized local admin rights, applications running with elevated privileges, and the usage of unintended ports that may be activated by malware or unknown applications.
According to CVE details, only 11% of vulnerabilities detected in the previous years were found to be critical. Endpoint Central MSP enables system admins to wade through the sea of threats, identifying and prioritizing those requiring immediate attention. Endpoint Central MSP also features an exclusive dashboard that highlights zero-day vulnerabilities (along with work-arounds until the vendor makes patches available) and possible ransomware threats (for which a quick response time is crucial to minimizing risks).
- Ensure continuous compliance
Security is not a one-time, set-and-forget activity, rather it requires ongoing efforts for maximum benefits. Frameworks and best-practices offered by compliance standards are tools that help simplify this process in a systematic manner.
The CIS Benchmarks is one such standard, developed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), that provides prescriptive guidance for establishing a secure baseline configuration for assets, including server OSs and app servers. Manually assessing all the servers against these benchmarks is no easy feat. Endpoint Central MSP simplifies the process of adhering to and maintaining compliance to CIS benchmarks through out-of-the-box compliance policies. These policies help with monitoring the servers to identify applicable CIS benchmarks and detect violations, along with detailed corrective actions for remediation.
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"ManageEngine Endpoint Central MSP answers all of your endpoint related queries. This tool gives you better asset management across your offices, including remote locations. Patch management and remote support are within the same license."
Ajay J,
IT manager.