What term refers to the period when a server or system is unavailable due to a crash or maintenance?

The term that refers to the period when a server or system is unavailable due to a crash or maintenance is "downtime."

Downtime specifically describes any interval in which a system or service is not operational and cannot be accessed by users. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including scheduled maintenance, unexpected failures, or crashes. It is a critical metric in IT and business environments because it directly impacts availability and, ultimately, user satisfaction and productivity.

The other terms have different meanings: an outage typically describes a broader scenario where services are unavailable, often seen in more severe contexts such as service provider failures. Latency refers to the time delay in data transmission over a network, rather than unavailability. Consolidation relates to the process of combining resources or data but does not pertain to the unavailability of a system. Understanding the precise meaning of downtime is important for evaluating system performance and planning maintenance schedules.