Questions tagged [documentation]
The documentation tag has no usage guidance.
118
questions
66
votes
19
answers
26k
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How do you document a network?
I'm not sure how to ask this question, since I'm not in the field. Say you're a network admin and you leave your job. How does the new guy know where to start?
48
votes
34
answers
10k
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How are you documenting your work, processes and environment?
Are you using a wiki format? If so, which product? (MediaWiki, Confluence, Sharepoint etc.)
Have you create a knowledge base? (Problem/solution-oriented short documents.)
What challenges do you find ...
27
votes
14
answers
2k
views
If you got hit by a bus, would your company be in trouble?
At work, I'm the only IT guy (do it all, and do it now type guy) for the last 10 years. If I ever got hit by a bus they would be totally screwed. I've mentioned it several times to management/...
23
votes
6
answers
3k
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Getting started with documentation
We haven't been doing any documentation at my workplace. I'm completely new to it and ask for some guidance getting started.
I have a few questions:
What are the essential documents that a sysadmin ...
17
votes
9
answers
1k
views
Documentation As-A-Manual vs. Documentation As-A-Checklist
I've had discussions in the past with other people in my department about documentation, specifically, level-of-detail and requirements. In their view, documentation is a simple checklist of Y things ...
16
votes
5
answers
15k
views
How do I write man pages? [closed]
How do I write a man page?
Where can I find a reference of all formatting codes?
Are there any good tutorials on writing man pages?
What is the most convenient way to write a man page? Should I ...
16
votes
4
answers
33k
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Looking for good documentation of odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files on Linux
I saw partial information, old information, but nothing as good as the actual sample files with brief comments that I have locally.
I need to understand the exact relationship between odbc.ini and ...
16
votes
4
answers
2k
views
IT Documentation with MediaWiki
We are looking for ways in which to further enhance our documentation and our ability to allow easy access to the information as well as editing the information. With these ideas in mind, we created ...
15
votes
5
answers
22k
views
How do you document windows server configurations?
I come from a Unix background where documenting the configuration of a service (email for example) could be as simple as grabbing a few text configuration files and a paragraph or 2 of explanatory ...
13
votes
6
answers
10k
views
free tool for datacenter documentation [closed]
Is there any free tools out there that can help to better document at datacenter, for information like servers in a rack, the group port it is connected to and etc?
13
votes
6
answers
628
views
Where can I document useful things to know as a Mac sysadmin?
I've recently done some research on the directory service tools on the Mac (dscl, dsimport, dsexport), and would like to be able to document them somewhere for all to benefit (and perhaps where my ...
12
votes
7
answers
12k
views
How to document linux server configuration?
I have about 20 linux servers which I need to document the configuration of. I do not mean the detailed configuration of services, but rather user accounts, databases, databases accounts, ip addresses,...
12
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Anything Close to an NSA Guide for Securing RHEL 6 [closed]
Some in our infrastructure group want to upgrade to start taking advantage of the new features in RHEL 6. In the past, I have relied on the NSA Guide (www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/os/redhat/rhel5-guide-i731....
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Industry Standards for Network Infrastructure Labeling
Are there any current industry standards IEEE, ISO, ANSI.... available that state how a buildings physical infrastructure should be labeled at the rack and jack and how the documentation should be ...
9
votes
5
answers
12k
views
What is important to document in an active directory server?
Later this year I will be handing over support of my church’s active directory servers to someone else and would like to know what kind of information is important to document and share. Are there any ...
8
votes
3
answers
370
views
How do you avoid that server documentation gets out of sync with the actual setup?
We have have reasonably good documentation for our environment (in AsciiDoc format) which recently allowed another person to recreate the entire setup from scratch in less than 30 minutes.
However, I ...
8
votes
7
answers
812
views
What level of documentation do you expect to be provided to you by developers?
Title says it all really.
It can sometimes end up that development and IT are at loggerheads over this sort of thing. What level of documentation do you expect when you're expected to install, patch, ...
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are there standards/conventions used by IT technical writers?
TL:DR? Fine...here:
Short of hiring or outsourcing to a Tech Writer, are there basic standards/conventions/practices that Technical Writers employ in their trade that can be learned from in order to ...
7
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Documenting server details
This could be a very naive question for many of you, but I have problem in answering this one, your help will be deeply appreciated.
I need to document the server on which I work, and it should ...
7
votes
2
answers
296
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documenting a schools pcs and network (voluntary)
My daughter’s school have several networked pcs (various OS), printers, networked interactive white boards (connect to the internet, stream media etc). They have a parent who was looking after ...
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do you document your Cisco configurations?
How do you document your Cisco configurations?
How much / what kind of information do you include in the description field (connects to, circuit ID, device information, etc.)?
Do you use any ...
6
votes
6
answers
3k
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New Sys Admin job...Where do I begin?
I'm looking for some general advice here. I've decided to take my first job in a lead sys admin position...I don't start until next month, but in the meantime I'd like to prepare for the position.
...
6
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Where can I find introductory documentation for ZFS?
I recently installed OpenIndiana because of an interest in ZFS. I like the feature-list of ZFS, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how to configure it. All of the documentation I ...
6
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What's the difference between a Disaster Recovery Plan and a Business Continuity Plan?
I used to think both terms referred to the exact same thing, but one of my clients just requested to have a look at both documents.
The request emanates from the security department of a very big ...
6
votes
2
answers
303
views
Properly documenting installations of seldom used new technologies
I've been tasked with looking if a combination of NoSQL (in this case possibly Neo4J) and SQL-Server is a possible solution for a performance problem we've been having.
Part of my technical analysis ...
6
votes
1
answer
474
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Linux I/O buffering reference
Can someone point me to a fairly complete reference on the Linux I/O system, primarily how all the buffers and caches are handled and flushed?
My understanding so far is that there are
Application ...
5
votes
11
answers
7k
views
What do i use to hold the server documentation?
I had to document the servers i use and i don't know what to use to hold the data. Could you sugest the best way to keep the server documentation? Do i create a data base that holds the harware and ...
5
votes
5
answers
1k
views
What's the best platform to publish documentation to internal users?
My team has a need to publish documentation internally. At the moment, it's spread all over the place and this means we often have to search everywhere to find something.
We'd like to publish ...
5
votes
8
answers
8k
views
creating decision tree based troubleshooting documentation?
We troubleshoot a lot of server and network issues and follow a loose set of steps on what to do in different cases. With more and more people and responsibility, the need for standardization is ...
5
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Powershell 2: How to eliminate duplicate help entries?
I am frequently making calls such as:
get-help <some-command>
in Powershell 2. For many, but not all, of these commands, I am not shown the contents of the help entry. Instead, I get ...
5
votes
2
answers
14k
views
Bash commands run at terminal but not in Jenkins/Bash Script
I'm using Jenkins to build and deploy HTML documentation to a local Apache web server for our devs to use. When I run the commands in the terminal, everything installs properly (Proving the server is ...
5
votes
1
answer
500
views
HAProxy listen with two arguments?
I keep seeing HAProxy configuration examples with a two-argument syntax. Indeed, the default configuration file supplied with 1.4.18 contains this:
listen appli1-rewrite 0.0.0.0:10001
cookie ...
4
votes
4
answers
381
views
What's new in Puppet since 2007?
I've got a copy of the Pulling Strings with Puppet book (written in 2007) but given that it has a bunch of equivocal language, I'm wonder how much has changed since then? I've found this Release Notes ...
4
votes
3
answers
191
views
IP address range for examples in documentations
Is there an IP address range dedicated to example in documentations ? (Like example.com for DNS)
4
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How to handle knowledge handover effectively?
Let's say a large enterprise opens a new office in (insert random location here) and want the new colleagues up to speed as fast as possible. Let's also say this enterprise is a very typical one with ...
4
votes
2
answers
3k
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Migrating from MyISAM to XtraDB
Just a few questions that I just can't find anywhere about migrating to XtraDB.
My group has been using MyISAM dbs for production and was wondering how hard is it to migrate to Percona's XtraDB and ...
4
votes
2
answers
9k
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How does the samba usershare_acl parameter work?
Looks like it is not even documented on the samba website itself, or did I miss it?
4
votes
3
answers
22k
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Dell fumbles OpenManage installation process, forgets to write documentation?
I'm setting up a Dell PowerEdge 2950 for a small business, and I've just spent a while with Dell OpenManage Server Administrator 6.2, trying to clear the installation process of errors before I ...
4
votes
3
answers
186
views
Industry Standards for Internal Documentation?
The organization I work for is a growing one and with that growth comes maturity and with that maturity comes a need to better document.
Today it's a hodge-podge of directories, wikis, OneNotes, and ...
4
votes
3
answers
789
views
Documenting Job Schedules?
Once upon a time, I thought I found the perfect way to document all scheduled jobs across all servers. I used Google Calendar and created a cal for each server and then added all the jobs as scheduled ...
4
votes
1
answer
4k
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server handover document template - users, security settings (firewall,selinux), packages etc
As part of the handover of our linux application server automated builds I would like to produce a high level "handover document" which captures the key functions and config items. (This is more of a ...
3
votes
7
answers
242
views
tutorial/training creation tools [closed]
I've used Wink to create Flash tutorials for employees on setting up and using various programs. It's a nice tool, but sometimes I wish I had more options.
Have you used a tool or tools to do this ...
3
votes
2
answers
374
views
What photograph technology is appropriate for site/datacenter documentation?
I manage 500+ sites and need a better visual way of documenting and walking people through a given datacenter.
I'm considering taking several (hundred) pictures and stitching them together so that I ...
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is there reference documentation for CloudInit?
Ubuntu's CloudInit package is very useful; however, the only documentation I've found on all of the available options is in their examples: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~cloud-init-dev/cloud-init/trunk/...
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Powershell and NMAP Information Sharing
I am working on a project where I would like to perform host documentation for a variety of items. Part of these items would be sourced from Powershell and the rest would be sourced from NMAP. For ...
3
votes
3
answers
879
views
Documenting port numbers on floor plan
I want to be able to create a simple floor plan and document where all the ports are located and what there number is.
Is there any good software to help with this. Preferably open source / free.
3
votes
4
answers
15k
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Cisco 48 port switch template diagram
We have just taken delivery of a 'mature' 48 port switch for testing, deployment and general skulduggery. Since we are going to be constantly mucking around with the patching we need a diagram so we ...
3
votes
4
answers
494
views
Complex software installation documentation procedures or tools [closed]
We have to distribute and maintain a somewhat complex software application, whose installer does not (nor is expected to) install and configure every part needed on any possible kind of server.
I've ...
3
votes
2
answers
327
views
Documentation for native modules in IIS 7.x
I've been working for some time at a super lean IIS 7.5 configuration for a static file serving purposes web site. To achieve this, I've simply stripped the designated web site for all dynamic modules,...
3
votes
1
answer
191
views
Inventory tool to document customers services and associated network connectivity details? [closed]
Has anyone a recommendation for an inventory tool to document:
customers,
services associated by each customer,
network connectivity details (IP, TCP, ftp, http): typically local and remote TCP ...