The Operator: July 12, 2009

What should be documented, how and why.

I'll be the first to admit that I tend to put work before paperwork. But when it comes to documenting your network and IT assets, every hour of paperwork can save you several hours of work.

Last week's installation is a great example. We installed a new HP controller, a PoE switch (not HP, though we tried and that's another story) and 12 new HP wireless access points for a client's hotel. That was the easy part. The hard part was salvaging the 9 existing 3Com access points from the old system. No, they didn't need 21 total, they needed 18 for 170 rooms + 5 meeting rooms - but when we surveyed we only found 6 3Com APs.

Because there was no documentation available, it took several hours to find and reconfigure the old units. 7 were in the ceiling of the 2nd floor (no, installs on the 200 level DO NOT provide good coverage for 3 floors!), but 2 were putting out very little signal, making them hard to track down.

The two that were easy to find were in the conference center. One other thing made those two units stand out - they had never been configured. They were removed from the box and placed in the ceiling without being set up. That might work for some equipment, but in this case those units put out NO SIGNAL until they were configured.

Guests had good reason for complaining.

Now they have capacity for 200+ users, no login/password (which they hated and couldn't work around) and a coverage map showing the signal level in every corner of the property. When they need to make another change, they'll have the exact location of all 24 pieces of equipment.

I could go into some great geeky detail about how we save config files (so that we can drop-ship replacements and get things back in operation overnight), but the important part is this:

None of that 'stuff' in the back room is bulletproof - eventually something's going to break. Documentation is the difference between a quick recovery and days of downtime. Having it means that when you need to consider changes you don't have to start from scratch. Not having it means you chose an IT vendor who is either lazy and sloppy or who wants you to be dependent on them in case of failure.

- Matt