This is how I perform Preventative Maintenance (PM) checks manually on Windows Servers. This applies to Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022.

Storage

1. Check that main drive (usually C:) and external drives have enough disk space. Record the size of the disk space and compare with previous record.

Get-PSDrive `
| Where-Object { $_.Free -ne $null } `
| Sort-Object Name `
| Select-Object Name,
  @{Name="Used (GB)"; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.Used / 1GB) }},
    @{Name="Free (GB)"; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f ($_.Free / 1GB) }},
    @{Name="Total (GB)"; Expression = { "{0:N2}" -f (($_.Used + $_.Free) / 1GB) }},
    @{Name="% Used"; Expression = {
        if ($_.Used + $_.Free -eq 0) { "N/A" }
        else { "{0:N1}%" -f (($_.Used / ($_.Used + $_.Free)) * 100) } }},
    @{Name="% Free"; Expression = {
        if ($_.Used + $_.Free -eq 0) { "N/A" }
        else { "{0:N1}%" -f (($_.Free / ($_.Used + $_.Free)) * 100) } }},
    Root `
| Format-Table -AutoSize

# Outputs:
# Name Used (GB) Free (GB) Total (GB) % Used % Free Root
# ---- --------- --------- ---------- ------ ------ ----
# C    242.36    232.35    474.72     51.1%  48.9%  C:\

2. Run Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr), and make sure to click “Clean up system files”. Click everything except Downloads, and run for the drives you need.

3. Check around directories manually or use a software tool like WizTree to have a look around for un-needed folder and files that are taking up space and delete as needed.

4. Run the above PowerShell script again to see how much space it cleaned up.

Backups

Go to your backup server and software of choice.

Veeam

1. Test to see if E-mail notifications are getting delivered.

   • Go to File > Options > E-mail Settings.
   • Click on Test Message button.

2. Look to see for any backup failures, and make sure that the back-ups are up-to-date and have not stopped.

3. Test each individual backup.

   • On the left sidebar, go to Backups > Disk
   • Restore guest files is the easiest option, and you can see if there is any file corruption with the backup.
   • To stop a guest file restore session, click “Stop session” in Running backups.
   • Repeat for any other backups.

Others

t.b.d.

IMM / iLO / IDRAC

Lenovo XClarity Controller

1. Go to Events, review the events.
2. Go to Audit Log, review the log.
3. Go to Alert Recipients, send a test alert.

Security

Make sure that your anti-malware/anti-virus of choice is up-to-date and has reported no issues. Check the anti-malware logs.

Check for Windows Updates and schedule a reboot in the early morning for it.

365 Admin

Go to the 365 Admin Centre, sign in and check the following:

1. Check to see if there are no users deleted in 365.
2. Check to see if there are no groups deleted in 365.
3. Review licence requests and approve/deny as needed.