The availability of disk space in servers is critical. Applications running on these servers store log files and write data to the database, which is also installed on the same server; if there's not enough disk space available, then the application can't run properly, and it might crash. Monitoring disk space with a potent hardware monitoris essential for IT admins to ensure the high performance of servers, and keep network uptime optimum by avoiding a sudden and unforeseen lack of server disk space.
Most organizations use servers from multiple vendors, and each run on different operating system (OS) versions. The differences in OS versions can make it challenging to collectively monitor the disk space of all the servers at regular intervals. If you're using your own homegrown scripts to monitor them, then you also need to constantly update those scripts to ensure the latest OS and metrics are supported.
Another challenge lies in being notified too late of a disk space issue. Only by spotting the issue proactively can you look into the disk space and free some up so the application continues to run.
Disk data growth is not predictable; for example, logs could be 10MB over one week, then jump to 10GB overnight. In order to either optimize an application so it doesn't consume a huge amount of space or buy additional hard disks and increase the storage, IT teams need access to disk space trend reports. These reports need to be generated with historical data to understand the trend and make an informed decision.
Another challenge IT admins face is increased mean time to resolve (MTTR). For example, if an application crashes due to a lack of disk space on the server, the organization will experience downtime. And without logs, they have no idea how long it will take to fix the issue, or any idea on how to fix it.
IT admins also face these challenges on a regular basis: