Managing Network Documentation

I’ll admit it—creating network documentation is one of my least favorite tasks in network administration. It just isn’t as exciting to me as learning about the coolest new technology or tackling and solving a challenging problem. Part of it may be that I figure I know my networks well enough—after all, I installed and configured them, so if something comes up, it should be easy to figure it out and fix it, right? And most of the time I can do that, but as networks get bigger and more complex, it gets harder and harder to remember it all. Plus, it’s an integral part of the service I provide for my clients to have seriously solid documentation in hand to refer to after I’ve left the scene and turned their network over to them. So while I’ll admit that creating documentation isn’t something I get excited about, I know from experience that having it around is critical when problems come up—for myself...