[ale] [OT] Good Server Documentation - Best Practices

[James S. Cochrane]

Hehehe...  This is a fun one, especially since by the time you put it in a 
nice binder, it will probably be out of date...

Important information:
Semi-persistent information:
         Applications running on the system
         Contacts for the application
         Contacts for the system administration team
         Vendor contact and contract information (application, OS, hardware)
         Support requirements (ie, 24x7, 9-6, scheduled maintenance 
windows, etc)
Nonpersistent information:
           System location (floor tile, office, etc)
           Server type (vendor, model, etc)
         Serial number
           Detailed system hardware configuration:
                 CPU's: # and speed (# of CPU boards if system supports 
multiple CPU boards)
                       Memory:  amount, type, configuration, memory boards, etc
                       Disk:     Internal
                                   External (may be covered again below)
                       Network cards
                       Storage cards (SCSI, Fibre, etc)
                       CDROM/DVD/tape drives
                       External attachments:
                         Storage Arrays
                         direct cable attachments
                                   switch ports/VLAN's

         Detailed system software configuration:
                 OS:
                         OS revision
                         Filesystem layout (broken down into internal OS 
disks and application disks, you may want size and 
physical                             layout on disk)
                 Applications:
                         Software names and revisions

         Misc:
                 Specialized network requirements (access through the 
firewall, private network, etc)
                 Backups (what server, what schedule, special retention 
requirements, etc)

You'll note this is an application-centric view, although I'm a sysadmin, 
since the entire purpose of having the server is providing the service.  So 
application information is frequently more important than the particulars 
of a given server, you may wind up migrating the application to new 
hardware at some point, if it's a halfway-decent application.

James

At 04:31 PM 1/29/03 -0500, you wrote:
>On Wed, 2003-01-29 at 16:25, Jonathan Glass wrote:
> > I'm about to spend a half-day doing nothing but documentation!  Woohoo!
> > Now I'm in a quandary.  I have a nice, new, clean notebook (3-ring
> > binder) with inserts.  WHat is the best way to document your servers?
>
>Use VIM and ASCII art.
>
>But you really should use something like Visio.  Convert to PDF and
>print for your binder.  Pencils are part of the past.
>
> >
> > I was thinking about going the minimalist route, including server name,
> > ip, mac, switch port #, services, file-system layout, backup policies
> > and recovery methods...one sheet for each server.
>
>Works fine.  Create a standard form
>
> >
> > How do i document all my client machines?  Should I do the same, sans IP
> > addresses?  I'm sure there is more to this.
>
>Yep.  Do not forget equipment serial numbers
>
> >
> > Thanks for any tips, suggestions, RTFMs (haven't looked for a "man
> > documenting-servers" yet...).
>
>Would'nt know of any.
>
> > --
> > Jonathan Glass
> > Systems Support Specialist II
> > Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience
> > Georgia Institute of Technology
> > 404.385.0127
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>
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