A system administrator notices that a Linux server is performing poorly and, upon investigation, discovers that the I/O wait time is consistently high, even under normal workload. The server hosts a database service that is critical for the company's operations. Which of the following actions should the administrator take FIRST to address the high I/O wait issue?
Check for network issues that may be affecting storage access
Upgrade to faster storage hardware, such as NVMe drives
Analyze disk I/O activity using utilities like iotop or iostat
Add additional RAM to the server to improve overall performance