Info on Staging Server & Production Server

Hello,

I recently got a new web content management job and was told I'd need to handle some issues with the staging server and production server. One example was that some xml file was out of place and so the person before me had to check the servers...
Keep in mind the person interviewing me might not of been sure about what they were talking about.
I have never dealt with servers before. I have designed websites and setup everything with the website hosts but nothing with servers.
Can someone tell me what this would entail and where I can read up on this?

Thanks