Take over of a school - Technical Documentation

[spmartin27]

Hi Guys,

 

I wonder if someone could give me some guidance on this please. i work for a trust of schools and I've just been told that we're taking over another school.

 

we have had a look round the school and the previous I.T manager had left no documentation whatsoever so i have no idea what systems have been put in.

 

I've been tasked to put a document together and do some sort of whole school audit, find out what has been put in, what's running on the server, WiFi, printers, what equipment they currently have etc.

 

does anyone have some sort of documentation i could follow as a template i would be really grateful.

[Guest obsidianpillar]

No documentation as such to hand. However, before you go and touch anything, visually observe and attempt to log where certain equipment is within the buildings (i.e Photocopier in Library), Switch in Caretaker's office etc and use that to compliment network scans showing IP address' etc. It's fairly easy to see what's running on Servers with what's installed, roles and services. WiFi is dependent on setup etc and management with a controller (if there is one?). For querying PC's, software such as CentraStage can do that, although depending on how long you plan to use it for will depend on if you'd have to buy a license for it. It's a SAAS application that can do more things, but it's easier than querying each PC/suite individually.

 

Just a few ideas to get you started. I'd enjoy the task, but keep us updated!

 

Tom

[Bedders]

Have a look what backups are being done. Then work out what server each backup corresponds to, and work 'forwards' from there as a starting point.

[spmartin27]

I've only been for a look round, but i need to go back document everything they have at some point, bosses want to know!

[Bedders]

I read a disaster recovery thread that had a checklist in it, I'll see if I can find it. Often what needs to be recovered is a good place to use when looking at what you have (as I found out when I started at my place 6 months ago - thankfully my boss has a large idea of the systems we have, but he hasn't been involved in maintaining them for several years!)

[southhamster]

You may find a program called sydiserver handy as a quick starting point. It grabs everything it can about the server and you can then output to a nice word doc. The downside? If you print it all you'll end up using a lot of paper!

[JordanT91]

When I started here I was in a similar situation. The most useful thing I did was create an asset map. I used Visio for this. Get some good quality floor plans and go round adding all the assets and relevant information such as hostname, device type, IP address (if static), room name, asset tag, even serial number if you can be bothered. It's handy as a visual resource but you can also run reports.

 

I also found it useful to do a seperate Visio document for my network cabinets, detailing all the devices in them and the important cables.

 

If there's nothing in place already, get Spiceworks installed. With minimal fuss it can examine the network and gather lots of useful (and useless) information about what's on it. You could also use the helpdesk part of it to log the work you do for future reference.

 

Edit: Other documents you may find useful to create as you deal with systems:

• WiFi
  
• Telephone system
  
• Usernames and passwords
  
• network diagram
  
• device assignment (cameras, tablets, laptops etc.)
  
• Backup arrangements
  

Edited May 9, 2017 by JordanT91

[mthomas08]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if someone could give me some guidance on this please. i work for a trust of schools and I've just been told that we're taking over another school.

we have had a look round the school and the previous I.T manager had left no documentation whatsoever so i have no idea what systems have been put in.

I've been tasked to put a document together and do some sort of whole school audit, find out what has been put in, what's running on the server, WiFi, printers, what equipment they currently have etc.

does anyone have some sort of documentation i could follow as a template i would be really grateful.

 

Am I the only one that wants to say lucky devil? I'm not joking I actually enjoy this type of work. Not the first I've taken a job with little to no documentation.

 

First thing: I'd do a full site audit: Equipment, age, working, state of rooms, cabling quality, networking and server standards.

Second thing: I'd evaluate the type of problems everyone faces (great way to ask staff, HODs what their view is). Although they may say "it's old" you take that with a pinch of salt - you can work that out by doing the above. Server reliability, broadband and network speed. How long does it take to logon as a staff/student.

Third thing: The budget available, what gets purchased every year, can you cut costs e.g. non branded PCs, cheaper ones through your own suppliers, cheaper contractors maybe doing cabling etc.

Fourth: Printers, how much do they print a year, you can do a meter reading on everything (and with the audit you can work out how much they print a year on average)

 

On the things that won't change e.g. system setup, server setup. I'd get some documentation how it was all setup, make sure you have backups of everything, you can easily get Group Policy reports printed etc.

 

I don't have templates only reports to Governors/SLT I've prepared, audits, classroom evaluations, printing, cabling, networking and servers - all stuff I've done my self. This isn't to slate my guys though because they spent most of their time fire fighting/non IT tasks and nothing more because they lacked the time.

 

I'm probably missing a load but on the whim that's what I can think of.

Edited May 9, 2017 by mthomas08

[RJohnson91]

A clean slate sounds like a good thing to me.

 

We have taken over a few primary schools and the first thing we always do is roll out Centerstage, which is essentially just asset tracking software, it gives us an idea of how many computer's are across the site and the average age of them. This allows you to create project plans moving forward of PC refresh based on date e.t.c

 

 

Centrastage also allows you to roll it's software out via login script so you sit back, relax, sip your coffee and watch them populate automatically.

[Bedders]

Threads like http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/180501-disaster-recovery-plan.html and http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/177939-disaster-recovery-plan-network.html have some good lists in there, not quite what I recall though - it's probably my recollection at fault!