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Re: [SAGE] Unix sys admin "run book" documentation standardsand templates
Hi Bruce-
You've described an interesting project, and I cannot help you directly.
But here's my 2 cents:
$.01 It is better to remove the differences than to document them
$.01 It is better to have 1 good solution than 2 or 3 or 20 different
solutions (like account creation tools, system databases)
I suggest your department direct the sys admins to use similar practices
rather than to document the differences.
Quentin
>>>>> Bruce Hamilton writes:
> My department, which has nearly 20 Unix sys admins running about as many
> distinct administrative domains*, needs to put together some sort of "run
> book" documentation so that any admin can come quickly up to speed in any
> other admin's domain.
> We already have a pretty good database with detailed records per server
> giving stuff like OS version, serial#, and lots of detailed hardware
> configuration information. We need to go far beyond that to document how
> various hosts interact, where accounts get added, where and how various
> system databases are maintained, etc.
> A cursory search of Google (Web and USENET) doesn't seem to come up with
> much. Surely every major consulting company and large in-house IT shop has
> encountered this problem.
> We need standards and templates that are comprehensive but that at the same
> time can be broken into manageable chunks so that a sys admin with an hour
> here or there can produce something useful toward the goal.
> Any pointers or discussion would be most welcome. Might this be a good topic
> for a SAGE "Short Topics in System Administration" booklet?
> I can get some inspiration from the SAGE Job Descriptions, the Evi Nemeth
> Handbook, or the BOK efforts, but I'm looking for something a lot less
> encyclopedic and more focused, starting with the most important day-to-day
> questions, e.g.:
> - Who are the key customers? What are their requirements? Who controls their
> funding?
> - How are requests tracked?
> - How are new accounts created?
> - How are new hosts added? (procuring network drop, creating host table
> and/or DNS entries, ...)
> - How are backups performed? Describe offsite procedures, retention, and
> media rotation.
> - How are outages scheduled?
> - ...
> --Bruce (Bruce Hamilton, Redondo Beach, CA)
> bhami@pobox.com
> http://bhami.com/
> * What would be a better term than "administrative domain" for "the stuff
> one person admins"? It typically would include multiple subnets and may or
> may not correspond to a DNS domain.
--
Quentin Fennessy Quentin.Fennessy@amd.com
Office: 512.602.3873
Cell: 512.694.7489