Today's guest blogger is Jim Wells. Enjoy!
For those regular readers of the blog, I'm the junior admin mentioned here. I'm currently at a stop point on my current project (new PDC), so I figured I would start updating our internal wiki. So far I've found that while most of the wiki information is current, it is also somewhat... brief.
Yesterday (7/10), I decided to document our static IPs internal and external. I know there is probably a right way to go about this, but being I didn't know that way, I went with my way. I ran a basic port scan on the internal network to find out what I actually have online, and I also dumped the internal DNS zone to see what it had. While I didn't find anything on the network that wasn't supposed to be there, I did find some old clutter in our DNS server. And by old, I mean references to systems/projects that were long dead before I started working here two years ago. So that got pruned and into the wiki.
Also on my list of recent updates was our server listing. After the initial conversation with Matt, I went through and updated our system list to make sure all the servers were listed along with a rudimentary description of what they are for. Today's work will involve collection Service Tag numbers and system specs along with a detailed description of what services they are running. If I'm lucky at pinning down the boss, I also want to see about getting a replacement timeline set up. With the funding we get around here, it'll be more pipedream than actuality, but it would be nice to have something down on paper.
What I would like to ask the rest of you reading out there is this: What else (idealy) should be in my network documentation? I'm still pretty new to this line of work and I am not sure what I really need to have down. It's hard to pin down my boss to get this information sometimes, and I would like a broader prospective on the issue. I look forward to your replies.
Jim
Monday, July 14, 2008
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2 comments:
I'm the router/switch/firewall/etc dude at my place. When I'm doing documentation, I split things into two categories:
1) Information for coworkers on doing simple stuff that has some overlap to their realm. Example: how to login to our (Cisco) switches and track down what port a device with a specific IP address (i.e. a user or a server) is plugged into.
2) Information for my replacement when I hang up my hat and move on to the next employer.
It wouldn't hurt to create a network diagram of your network, with just the routers, switches, firewall, etc. You'll label each router with the interface IPs and a label for the networks on that interface.
For server, create a Visio with the following information: location, server name, OS, primary function, other applications that may be crucial for production. Signify if they are being load balanced with other servers.
For inventory: serial #, asset tag, OS, ip, hostname, FQDN, application, geo location, position in rack.
Shaun Hurley
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