Documenting the Data Center: Data Center Management 101 Part IV

Why is documentation so important to the daily efficient running of your data center and storage environment? There are a slew of reasons I could give you, but the most important one I have found is clarity. I have always noticed that a large percentage of vendors provide either poor documentation on their products or material that appears to be useful, but then have no step by step process on how to install and configure their devices and/or software. Rather what you really needed are the documents that the Professional Services individual has when they do the installation and training.

So what's the answer? The Internet? You can find bits and pieces of what you are looking for to create a reasonable installation guide or cheat sheet for the product you are working with but I wouldn't recommend it - at least not for most critical data center operations. Here are some better options I have found over the years:

• Go to the vendor training class
• Ask for them as part of the first system you buy (Demand you get the documents!)
• Negotiate for the needed documents as part a system upgrade 

Even once you receive this documentation do not assume it is in a format you can use. More than likely, you will need to re-draft it in order to make it fit into your IT Organization. I have seen documentation from one end of the spectrum to the other. Life Sciences and Finance tend to have very strict guidelines on documentation and qualification/validation processes in their environments while privately-held companies have just rudimentary work instructions.

Some of you may be saying "why is this important to me?". Simple - it's important to the proper and efficient running of your IT business. Ever since I started in this industry, I have insured that I have spent the time and effort documenting all my processes and procedures to ensure if I was hit by the proverbial train and/or bus, someone could pick up and carry on. Below is a list of documentation you should consider having if you don't already. You can take them as far and deep as you like:

• Work Instructions. Install and configuration guides for software and/or hardware.
• Naming Conventions. Documents that contain the proper naming of infrastructure parts in your environment.
• Cable Management. Spreadsheets or websites containing the source and destination of cables.
• Change Management Logs. Documents or software systems to track changes made in your software or hardware areas.
• Configuration Management Details. Documents, Visio's, or websites, containing a pictorial references to your Logical and Physical IT infrastructure.
• Support Ticket Logs. Documents or software systems to track issues from end-user's and /or other areas of IT. This will ensure you have proper tools to show trends in problem areas, and the ability to be more proactive versus re-active.
• Lessons Learned. Documents or websites that contain information on past upgrades, installs, and configuration changes. Detailing how they went wrong, right, or how things could be improved next time.
• Upgrade Procedures. Documents or software systems that allow you and your management to review upgrades, and determine what the impact is to the overall IT landscape. Contrast this with looking at this from a silo'ed approach and only worrying about your one little portion. These documents should also contain back-out plans and regression testing information.
• Keep your documentation current. If you go thru the effort of writing all this up and don't keep them up to date, they become outdated and worthless.

These are just a few ideas for you to kick around with your team. While adopting all of them is not a necessity, I would recommend adopting some of these processes. If you do so you will have a much happier client-base as well as less support tickets to deal with on Monday mornings.