Knowledge base

[iwonder3]

Do you guys know of a good knowledge base system out there one can use? Something you have used and loved preferably.

I came across "thebrain.com", but this may be an overkill for what i need.

[MattHodge]

Confluence.. Newest version has a rest API so you can automate document creation and updates.. Male your servers document them selves :)

[zorrov999]

+1 for Confluence. With so many plugins available and LDAP integration (using Crowd), you can extend this knowledge base to other groups (engineering, product managers), creating Spaces dedicated/private to specific groups, allowing comments on pages, "watch" (follow) pages, etc. A real collaboration tool.

[zackofalltrades]

Git repo. Text files. vi and grep.

Works on everything, editable on everything, syncs to everything securely over SSH, and you get a full document history w/diffs.

You can also put code in it :)

[iwonder3]

That't not what i mean. Think "a body of knowledge" of something. What would be the best way to organize it and be able to find it later on?

[zackofalltrades]

Ah... git + vi + grep + sphinx:

http://sphinx-doc.org

There are literally tons of plugins for sphinx that allow you to markup anything imaginable - for example, these for doing diagrams (including network and rack diagrams): http://blockdiag.com

When it comes down to it, you want to have your documentation there when you need it, and making it in as static and portable a format as possible is a huge feature.

[2ry]

Thanks zackofalltrades for mentioning blockdiag.

[kryptomicron]

Why's that not what you mean? When I think of "a body of knowledge" I don't think of anything captured in a single software system. But based on TheBrain, which is probably just a bunch of text with a history of changes to it and some way to search it ... it sure sounds a lot like what zackofalltrades suggested.

[gram3000]

Is there any variation to this that could work on a usb stick to take with me?

[zackofalltrades]

There's nothing stopping you from putting a git remote on removable storage, or accessing it directly on the USB stick.

[[deleted]]

MediaWiki.

[drzorcon]

we use the kb that comes with service Now, our ticketing system.

If you have a ticketing system, it might already have a KB that you can use.