What is one effective way to monitor a server's performance?

Using performance monitoring software is a highly effective way to monitor a server's performance because it provides real-time insights into various metrics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, disk I/O, and network performance. This type of software can track performance trends over time, allowing administrators to identify anomalies and potential issues before they lead to system failures or degraded service.

Performance monitoring tools often include features such as alerting capabilities when certain thresholds are crossed, visual dashboards for easy data interpretation, and reporting functions that help with capacity planning and resource allocation. Such comprehensive monitoring is essential for maintaining the performance, reliability, and availability of a server in a production environment.

In contrast, comparing a server's performance to offline servers is not practical since offline servers do not contribute data or real-time context for analysis. Reducing network traffic might improve performance in some situations but does not provide a comprehensive view of server health. Similarly, restricting access can improve security but does not directly relate to performance monitoring; it might even limit the ability to gather necessary performance data. Thus, performance monitoring software stands out as the most effective method for this task.