What should be disabled when performing maintenance on a server that will be down and unresponsive?

When performing maintenance on a server that will be down and unresponsive, disabling alerting is crucial. Alerting systems are designed to notify administrators of any critical issues or changes in the server's status. If a server is intentionally taken offline for maintenance, the alerting system could generate unnecessary alerts indicating that the server is down, which may lead to confusion and responses to a situation that is already planned for.

Disabling alerting helps streamline the maintenance process by preventing these false alarms, allowing the IT team to focus on the actual maintenance work without being distracted by alerts that do not reflect an unexpected issue. This practice helps maintain operational efficiency and minimizes the noise generated by the server maintenance activities.

In contrast, monitoring and notifications can serve useful purposes during maintenance. Monitoring could provide insights about the maintenance process or any potential issues that arise during the task, while notifications might inform relevant stakeholders about the planned maintenance and expected downtime, ensuring everyone is aware of the situation. Backup processes are typically set to run automatically and should be completed or paused according to the maintenance plan rather than disabled completely.