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How much attention should I give to my event viewers?

I am running two 2003 Small Business Servers. One is a dedicated Exchange and Symantec console. The other is a Domain controller, Terminal server, DHCP, and file server. I have only been managing these servers for about 1 - 2 yrs. I am doing my best to learn as I go. I am simply looking for words of wisdom from someone w/ experience. I have made it a habit to look at the event viewers on both of those machines on a routine basis. Both machines have errors logged on them. Although, both machines seem to be running fine aside from the actual errors logged. There are no symptoms to report. I have done some reading and research on the specific event id's. I guess my question is also, should I be pulling my hair out on each error logged on both those servers even if the machines show no other symptoms? I just don't want to break something while I am trying to fix an error that does not affect my overall functionality.

Public Comments

1. The event logs are key to preventative medicine. You should check them on a regular basis (at least once a week) to see if there are any items needing addressing. Just because things seem normal, you could be heading for trouble is you do not diagnose and correct the events that are showing as warnings and errors. I would recommend that when you encounter an error to research the Microsoft Technet website to see what the cause of and resolution to the errors are. Sometimes they don't have the answer, so just pop the error into your favorite search engine and you will most likely find some helpful information. SBS only functions properly in a single domain controller environment. Your secondary server could be triggering errors if it was ever promoted to a DC. Since you listed its tasks I would question its level within the network, but I am sure you have it set properly if it has been functioning properly. I recommend that if you were wanting to make a major change that you use the Symantec Ghost or Symantec Disaster Recovery Console to image both servers prior to making changes. You can use Ghost so long as you do not have a raid going on, but the Distater Recovery Console from Symantec is nice since you can put the image onto dissimilar hardware and even from a bare metal restore.