Key Questions to ask outgoing Net Admin

I've had this happen to many clients of mine that have Net Admins.

Unless you have a deep understanding of your networks, you may not be the one that should be asking the questions, as some questions lead to more questions. You should consider getting an outside consultant to spend a couple of hours with them and have the consultant take down all the info. The consultant can pass on the info to the new network Admin more efficiently than a nontechnical person.

at the least you should get all passwords for your servers OS, server software, network printers, and network devices(IE FIrewall).

Is this person still an employee???
If so, then have the President or someone else like that walk into the server room, and DEMAND that this jerk start answering questions.

Yes, you need passwords, documentation on the network topology, any other documentation the Admin has. Get their e-mail mailbox. Get their home folders on the fileserver.

Also, get this Admin to make ANOTHER Administrative-level account immediately! Then, after the account is made, have someone (like yourself) log into the network using this account, then CHANGE THE PASSWORD! It is very imperative that the outgoing Admin does NOT know what the password is, or that you changed the password.
I would also remove the rights this Admin has from now until he/she is gone. If the Admin is reluctant in helping you out, then revoke all of his/her rights! Let them sit at a desk for the last few days, doing nothing! That will be safer than letting them have Admin rights.

This is a tricky situation. It can get messy, if the Admin is angry (and leaves some virii or timebombs sitting around). Make sure that the Admin has signed some kind of "I won't break your network on my last day" - type of document.

Be careful!

First off, back up all your important business data (user end). Believe me, servers and their parameters can be recreated and even reinstalled fully from scratch, but business data is the real data.

For this you should get all users to say whats really important to them.

Secondly, if you have any shared data on the server - say a common program running off the server, back it up also.

Now, try to get the passwords. I also favor the suggestion of getting the admin to make an equivalent super user, logging in and taking over with a consultant if you need.

End of mail.