Tag Archives: virtual servers

2014 11 05 21 43 35

How to produce good documentation – Part 2 – Rack and Server Diagrams

General, Networking, VMware, Windows, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Oh no, diagrams! But, but, I’m not creative!

So we covered the foundation an environment in part 1, which is that hated word, which is documentation,

But that means you need diagrams, which is something most people struggle with, especially using Visio.

You’re not alone, I was the same, my documentation in my early days was shocking, and then I took on a consultancy role, where I was implementing solutions and having to produce documentation for customer. I had a steep learning curve.

So I’m going to take you into the first steps on how to diagram your Racks and the servers in them.

Visio and your stencils

So your going to need Visio, preferably 2013, but 2010 will be fine. And you need stencils of the hardware you’re creating a diagram of.

The best place to get 90% of your Visio Stencils is VisioCafe.

For others that do not appear on there, its easy enough to just google the vendor name plus Visio ;).

Here’s the file for the Visio diagrams.

Creating a diagram of your rack

So this is something I do for most of my customers, creating a diagram of the rack, mainly to show the bits I’ve stuck in, and so the customer knows which server is which, and then can refer to the rest of the document for what that bit of kit does.

2014-11-05_19-52-45 Continue reading How to produce good documentation – Part 2 – Rack and Server Diagrams →

IT Disaster Recovery Planningjpg

How to produce good documentation – Part 1 – The foundation of any IT infrastructure

General, , , , ,

Oh No, that word….

Documentation is like a dirty word in a technicians mouth, we all hate producing it and we all hate keeping it up-to-date, but we all understand the value that it holds.

Some technicians despise keeping documentation, rather keeping it within their own heads, this is idea is built up from years of keeping themselves useful by being the only person in the office who can do X Y or Z.

But this is an old way of thinking, people are more tech savvy, and let’s be honest, Bosses, technical or not are more confident in today’s world that if they get rid of the said person, they’ll be able to replace them with some young kid who will pick up the pieces quickly and probably take the company in a new direction and produce better results.

So with that, I am going to outline some steps, tips and guide you on how to create documentation for your existing environment, or for a new project your under taking.

What is good documentation?

Continue reading How to produce good documentation – Part 1 – The foundation of any IT infrastructure →