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Network lifecycle and config managment

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by mail2day 1 view

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I have inherited a network that basically has nothing in place as far as lifecycle and Configuration Management. The IT director has not bothered to document the network in anyway. He is more interested in starting new initiatives(that the boss says to do) without doing the preliminary work of documenting and establishing a baseline for the new system.
What steps should I take or guidance should I review to start these programs on a existing network.

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by bsod_420

You are on the right track. If time permits and you have the ability to document the system, I would absolutely do that before I took any further steps. Always cover your tracks when given a new project by documenting the state of the system upon your takeover of responsibility. Present your findings to your boss and then start on your project.

by techrepublic

Check out myCMDB.com when evaluating configuration management systems.

myCMDB allows you to document your network equipment and perform hardware/software audits using an online scanner. It also enables you to perform change management and technology planning.

myCMDB is a turnkey application which avoids software installs on your end. You can sign up for a free test account (up to 10 systems) and start tracking your equipment/configuration right away.

I hope this helps,

Jim Davis
myCMDB Sales
>How do you document your network?<
http://www.myCMDB.com
Network Inventory and Configuration Management

by awfernald

When I was highly active in consulting, one of the biggest issues I had was lack of any type of documentation of the systems, policies or procedures in use. Batch processes, schedulers, etc... happened in the background and noone ever noticed them unless something went wrong.

The only real way to fix this is to start including the time in each project to do the documentation for the project (even when the boss wants it yesterday!)

Then, when you have a problem with a system, you take the time to document as much of the system as possible as you fix it/investigate it.

It will take a long time, however, eventually you should start to feel confident that your network is actually fairly well documented, and that if a competent stranger walked in, he/she could start doing productive work relatively quickly.

Another alternative (ouch, expensive) is to hire some technical writers on a x-month/x-week contract to visit each of the areas and to sit with the people who run the areas and do the documentation for them. It will cost some good bucks (writers aren't cheap), and it will still eat into the time of your full-time techs, but, you will be able to deliver about 80-90% of your network documentation in a reasonably short time.

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