Yes, a so simple and fundamental thing that is often treated as a detail. "I'll make it later..." or "I'll make it tomorrow, or someday..." - How many times did you say that? Let's be honest and keep track of the maintenance operations we need, so we can process them as a checklist.

While configuring a service server, always write down a checklist by design. Don't abadon the configuration and complete the todo-list by the next few days.

Writing down a check is the most important activity you should do, even before beginning installing the Operating System. You should consider a lot of factors, for instance which security profile you are adhering to.

Also, always remember to schedule the necessary cronjobs to ensure your server is always safe and updated.

It's not a coincidence if the paying supported operating systems like Red Hat and SUSE Enterprise Server have the automatic update feature.

So, a good system engineer would write himself a bunch of scripts/cronjobs to automate as much as operations as possible. Some examples? Cleaning and optimizing databases, backing up data, purging logs and monitoring the server health. Last but of a big importance is the security audit you should always monitor through your private scripts.