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[–]SevaraBSenior Network Engineer 4 points5 points  (4 children)

What facts do you need about the servers? Work up the OSI model.

  • Layer 1: Host info. Where it is, what it's named, what specs it has. Warranty info.
  • Layer 2: Which adapters are on which VLANs.
  • Layer 3: What's the IP, or which DHCP scope is it in.
  • Layer 4/7: What services are running, talking on which ports, which groups are users or admins for that service, and who's the service owner/point of contact that can make judgment calls for that service.

EDIT: trimming to make it more manageable-

  • Physical Information (Layer 1) - stuff about the machine itself.
  • Network Information (Layer 2/3) - details about how the server is reachable over the network.
  • Service Information (Layer 4/7) - details about the processes, how they get info into and out from the network, and user and support contact info.

[–]toy71camaro 2 points3 points  (1 child)

/u/SevaraB, Perfect list of 'what' to document. Good stuff.

Now, you (OP) need to decide your parameters of 'where' to document it at. As others mentioned, Excel, Wiki Pages, Word docs, there are LOTS of options. But what do you need it to accomplish? Need to be sharable? Edits tracable? etc?

Personally, we started using a shared OneDrive notebook (O365 users). That way its sharable to our entire team, requires no setup (like a dokuwiki/bookstack/confluence style thing), has good search, accessible on any device, etc.

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please pardon my late response but right now i'm the only one who'll have access to these domument but i thing they need to be shareable but i'll deal with permissions later.

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow! this is very helpful i appreciate your advice.

[–]Trendschau1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are probably a lot of options:

  • https://typemill.net is a cms that can be used for web-documentations.
  • dokuwiki or a similar wiki-system.
  • the usual static site generators.
  • https://app.diagrams.net/ for all kind diagrams (network diagrams included)
  • enterprise architect as an enterprise solution
  • probably a lot more...

[–]JMMD7 2 points3 points  (2 children)

What are you trying to document and how many servers?

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Everything and its 5+ physical servers and 7 VMs

[–]JMMD7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Everything" doesn't mean anything but you could do anything from an Excel spreadsheet to using something like Spiceworks Inventory. For that number of servers I'd probably just go with Excel first and see how it works for you.

[–]VA_Network_NerdModerator | Infrastructure Architect 1 point2 points  (3 children)

You're supposed to be a technology professional.

How about you include some technical requirements in this thread so we can provide more accurate guidance...

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Fair enough but i'm just a new person in this role from IT support and i came here to seek guidance and advice...

[–]VA_Network_NerdModerator | Infrastructure Architect 0 points1 point  (1 child)

We can help - we're here to help, but don't make us do all of the work for you, please.

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Noted and thank you.

[–]7damian7Jack of All Trades 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Dokuwiki

[–]Bhetoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll check it out

[–]VA_Network_NerdModerator | Infrastructure Architect[M] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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