Episode 111 — Predictive Failures — Early Warning Signs and Indicators

Certified - CompTIA Server+ Audio Course

This episode explains how predictive failure technologies and monitoring tools can identify hardware issues before they cause outages. We discuss using SMART data for drives, temperature and fan speed sensors for CPUs, and vendor-specific monitoring utilities for servers. These early warnings allow administrators to schedule maintenance or replacements before failures occur, minimizing downtime and avoiding data loss.

We then explore exam-relevant and real-world scenarios, such as replacing a storage drive showing high reallocated sector counts or addressing rising CPU temperatures before throttling impacts performance. Troubleshooting considerations include verifying sensor accuracy, correlating alerts with logs, and ensuring monitoring thresholds are set appropriately. Mastering predictive failure detection helps candidates maintain high availability and operational resilience. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber prepcasts, books, and information to strengthen your certification path.