Handover documentation

[sparkeh]

Pretty soon I am going to be handing over two networks to a new network manager.

Now, I have to be honest, my documentation is not exactly as complete as it could be.

 

So, if you were taking over a network, what would you like to see in the handover documentation?

[Edu-IT]

Which colleagues will give you the most headaches? ;-)

[fathead]

In all the schools I have worked in, the DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) has been the most important thing that's always been missing or extremely sketchy.

[rich_tech]

passwords and all possible important usernames is definitely on the list, esp for outside agencies like MS Licensing.

 

Stockbook is also another one

Edited May 9, 2012 by rich_tech

[elsiegee40]

I did a spread sheet with the following tabs:

- passwords

- rooms (which rooms are in which building and which staff member is associated with it if appropriate)

- workstations (which PC/laptops are in which room and any foibles... mobo battery flat, Slow, will only talk to WSUS once a day even if force is used...)

- where things are a) Storage (Cupboards and hidey holes and what's in them) b) Data (Summary of the shared drives and special folders for me) c) Keys

- Software summary of what's where

- Fonts extra fonts installed and where

- Notes about the ICT Suite Image and what else needs to be done after using it

- Profiles explanation of staff roaming and student mandatory profiles

- Email system notes

- regular jobs

- Outstanding jobs

- Contacts List Suppliers, helpers, anyone else that's in my address book that's vaguely relevant to the school

 

You'll gather from this that we had no logging system for work and other paperwork was thin on the ground, so I made sure it was all collated in one place. It gave me a good excuse to have a darn good sort out of the cupboards too, so I actually knew what was in them!

Edited May 9, 2012 by elsiegee40

[sparkeh]

Thanks everyone that's great so far.

I think I have everything covered, just need to pull it all together from the scattered notes I made for myself :S

[Gibbo]

I'd say it's more about the age of the documentation than the documents themselves.

 

The school I took over a while back had brilliant comprehensive documentation all about the Parental Gateway. Sadly it was the old Capita SIMS Learning Gateway they trialled in 2009 and abandoned. The current gateway had nothing.

 

 

Ask your replacement what key areas he would expect documentation on.

[enjay]

Include a list of important phone numbers, e.g. good suppliers, support companies, etc.

[Jamman960]

I had to take some time off in Jan/Feb for so had to update(re-create) my documentation quickly ready for the support company we'd found to use, heres the table of contents:

 

Key Locations

-Servers

-Switches

IP Addressing

Network Layout

-Physical

-Logical

Servers

-Descriptions & Functions

-AD Layout

-User file locations

Classrooms/School layout

Spares details

Inks/Toner locations

Backup Routines

Common issues

Key Contacts - suppliers, support contacts

Phone system reset

KVM Quick Help – Prep Server Room

Asset List

Password list(in school safe)

Edited May 9, 2012 by Jamman960

[CAM]

For a Data Manager handover, mine has links to EduGeek and some IT guys I recommend they follow on Twitter.

 

The rest of it is 10,000 words long trying to cram my entire job into one document in a few weeks...

[pete]

....everyone appears to have missed:

 

"That strange config file that looks completely wrong but is mission-critical and is supposed to be like that."

 

In short, document why and where your network differs from what a sane, competent sysadmin would expect to find.

[Earthling]

Strange that I should take time out from what I've been engaged on the last four days, to read this thread.

 

I'm currently documenting our network/domain/my job, as my co-tech has just realised I'm serious about retiring in 76 weeks and 1 day, and also that he's not taken a blind bit of notice of anything for the last five years, and doesn't know some of the most fundamental of fudamentals.

 

I'm putting in everything I can think of, apart from a Disaster Recovery Plan, as that was supposed to be one of his assignments two or three years ago. Didn't get done.

 

So there's my answer.....Everything, every last thing you can think of, no matter how trivial it may seem to you.

 

[JJonas]

...and some IT guys I recommend they follow on Twitter.

 

 

links please

[sonofsanta]

The biggest problem I've had here, and still continue to have over two years down the line is: leave a decent network map, with switches and WAPs labelled, and make sure all your network ports are labelled with which cab they go back to.

 

List of decent suppliers/people what you talk to is also good, to save the new incumbent from the pain of taking every call that comes in in the first month just in case it's a company that does need talking to and not just a random sales call.

[SYNACK]

....everyone appears to have missed:

 

"That strange config file that looks completely wrong but is mission-critical and is supposed to be like that."

 

In short, document why and where your network differs from what a sane, competent sysadmin would expect to find.

 

Ah, yes, the all important clothspeg documentation.

 

The document that explains that the random wooden closhpeg at 27RU on rack 2 is to stop the switch stacking lead from becomming slightly loose when the AC cranks up to full blast once every three years on a tuesday and creates an ossolation in the cable that gently rocks it just free enough to start dropping all packets from stacked switch a to b but not enough to show up as an error despite the cable ties and all other sane methods of preventing it. The problem that will show up during exams or an assessment in several years when the original tech is long since untraceable.

 

These instructions should be printed in large lettering in an A3 booklet bound and covered in a bright read cover with the words 'Don't Pannic' Printed in bold on the rear. This should then be stored in the server room, in a box behind a pane of glass above a sign in calming cornflour blue lettering telling the occupant to 'Break glass in case of excremental contact with rotating air distribution unit'.

[DSapseid]

I'm currently documenting our network/domain/my job, as my co-tech has just realised I'm serious about retiring in 76 weeks and 1 day, and also that he's not taken a blind bit of notice of anything for the last five years, and doesn't know some of the most fundamental of fudamentals.

 

not that your counting down the days at all!!

[Earthling]

not that your counting down the days at all!!

 

Not at all.

 

76 weeks exact today.

[enjay]

I read 76 days first time round, which I can understand counting down, but 76 weeks?!

 

I like that you express it in weeks, too - I would have thought most people would say "18 months" if referring to a period of 76 weeks! I guess it is like babies' ages, the point at which they stop being "23 months old" and become "2 years old".

[Earthling]

I read 76 days first time round, which I can understand counting down, but 76 weeks?!

 

I like that you express it in weeks, too - I would have thought most people would say "18 months" if referring to a period of 76 weeks! I guess it is like babies' ages, the point at which they stop being "23 months old" and become "2 years old".

 

Don't know why I chose weeks.....I guess it's because I can see a tangible reduction every week. I actually write it on my board as 'wks.days', if you get my meaning....e.g 76.1

 

And I'm counting down because I've had 42 years in this wonderful world of IT (DP as it was then), the last 38 or so in some kind of Tech Support role, the last 6 in a Tech Support role here in this place (enough to make anyone want to retire early) and I'm nearing the end of my tether......life-cycle.......sell-by date.......call it what you will.

 

I'm near the end of it, anyway.

[enjay]

Don't know why I chose weeks.....I guess it's because I can see a tangible reduction every week.

In which case, I say it should read 2500 hours...

[Earthling]

In which case, I say it should read 2500 hours...

 

My retirement, my countdown, my units.