[wplug] documenting network layout

[Alexandros Papadopoulos]

On Saturday 20 November 2004 16:19, John Harrold wrote:
<snip>
> So I want to find some way to document the network layout: which
> services are running on which computer, the location of backups and
> which scripts control them, where software exported to the
> workstations is installed, etc. I started to type something up in
> LaTeX;
<snip> 

John, I don't know of any standard way of doing this, but I'm in more or 
less the same situation (I'll be leaving my organisation in a few 
months and worried that the next guy will have a hard time to 
second-guess my network architecture, just because I thought it was 
"natural" to do it that way).

What I did immediately after realising this, was set up a tiki wiki 
(http://tikiwiki.org) and start documenting everything, including 
administrative examples, how to troubleshoot common problems etc. This 
provides for documentation that's flexible and easy to edit. I've 
included Dia diagrams and screenshots of the most important 
configuration tasks (e.g. how the web interface of some network devices 
looks under regular operation etc), as well as descriptions of what 
scheduled scripts do.

This, I feel, is the most important bit: providing a documentation basis 
that can be easily edited/used by both admins while they're there. You 
have the luxury of having a trainee, so I guess it would be valuable to 
have him/her contribute in this documentation project. After all, it's 
what all admins should do to safeguard against the hit-by-a-bus 
syndrome :-)

-A