Friday, September 11, 2009

Documenting servers

I'm starting to create a Run Book (not my term, but I don't remember where I heard it) to store all documents relating to the databases and their servers I'm responsible for. That list is growing, and before it gets out of hand I'd like to create a template of what needs to be included. I'm trying to determine just what needs to be included. Drafting the template should help me not to go back and redo what I've already done.

At this point I'm only documenting the servers, not any processes like database backups and restores. Those are important and I've already done most of those, just not formally. I'll do that also.

I'll start with the server itself. What I'm adding is the server name, ip address, if the server is physical or virtual (if virtual the name/location of the host server), the OS and any SPs of patches installed, number of CPUs, amount of memory, size/location of the page file, and the drives and total space. If the drives are on a SAN then I should include a mapping of the SAN.

For the SQL installation, the edition and any SPs or hot fixes, the instance name (we only run one instance per server), any non-default options that were configured, accounts used to run services, configured alerts, jobs and their schedules, if components like SSRS are installed and info about their configurations if they are.

For the databases, the db names (including the virtual name and physical path), compatibility level, recovery model, auto growth and size restrictions, and any db options.

For database backups, the type of backup, where it backs up to, and when it backs up. This info may be duplicated since our backups are handled by jobs.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

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