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I have many systems to check up and ensure proper operations. I like to keep notes on what I have checked to know that it’s been touched and the work has been performed. I like to use a spreadsheet to note the same info for all systems like hostname, IP, updates applied…etc.

What tools/trackers do you use or have you put together to help you keep track of the work performed?

What kind of info do you keep track of?

Our company will be implementing a recurring monthly downtime window for system reboots, updates, patches, etc. and I’d like to keep records of what needs to be done, what was done, and track that reboots were completed. This will help me identify patterns and repeat the work without loss.

Interested in hearing other approaches to the work.

Thank you Spiceheads!

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You want to look into Powershell and automation. Ain’t nobody got time for repetitive tasks.

You can build reports that all tell you what was done and so forth.

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Automation for anything repetitive, and autonomous monitoring of what’s automated.

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well, you do have time for repetition, if you’re in public sector :smiley: OK, maybe just in our country

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While PowerShell is useful it isn’t the end-all-be-all.

Find out what the task you are trying to do and see if there is a built in solution. One example would be using GPO to get users assigned to the correct network drives, permissions, ect. Doing that all by hand for each user would kill someone, but having AD setup with logical GPO and OU will make it easier.

Most system admins would want to have log files backed up, and ready for review if something comes up. Which PowerShell could do well if you are in Windows. Otherwise some sort of bash or csh would be better for *NIX.

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If you’re looking for documentation, I would recommend some sort of form like an Adobe PDF or Google Form to document what was successful and what wasn’t and needs further maintenance.

If you’re looking for automation, you could have the results of the jobs in the powershell script piped to a txt file that is retained or reviewed the next day. That would at least get rid of you needing to actually work on anything after hours (say bye-bye to that sweet OT :frowning: )

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I appreciate the responses, but i’m not sure how “organize” was interpreted as “execute”. I am not asking how to do repetitive tasks, I am not looking for a tool to do a task, I know what powershell is, I know what task scheduling is, I know what reports are.

This is a question of documentation and tracking. At the end of the day, you still need to read the reports, execute a script, or check up on the system one way or the other, right? You’re not just making scripts and schedules then leaving it at that, right?

Do you use a spreadsheet? Do you only use your built in reporting? What information is important to you and why?

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“What is connected where?” wouldn’t be repetitive, but it can serve as your organizational framework. “Who is using what equipment?” “How close are we to exhausting x, y, or z resource?”, “Is something bad happening?”, etc. … these are more-likely to be “repetitive” tasks, the organization of which should mirror your view of the network’s structure as a whole.

As to organizing, that’s largely organic, so YMMV. I would suggest a meta-script/routine that would not just pull logs & dump them into some folder tree (although that would answer your question), but add “management-level” parsing to strip out all the “I’m still okay” messages & focus on just the Warning-, Debug-, and Error-level log lines. Then you may not even have any need to read at all.

To me, this is the function of “Management Information Systems”. To separate the signal from the noise & focus on the 400# gorilla without being distracted by the herd of monkeys tear-assing around the tent.

Your biggest paragraph suggests to me, for your downtime service ops, the use of a whiteboard with “To Do”, “To DON’T” and “To DONE” sections & just stick post-its in their proper places – not forever, but as a means of getting the organization onto the “single pane of glass” so you can see it all. (“Must do this”, “Don’t do that”, move the post-it to “To DONE” when it’s over) Sorry if that sounds like Kanban …

HTH…

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Thanks @jimlong3 ​, this is the type of response I was looking for. I do use a “to-do” list within one note where I move things around in primary, secondary, tertiary priority and make notes. What you covered in your first paragraph is something I could improve and I’ll be adding that to my procedures. Thanks for the input!

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Thanks, @spiceuser-bt0rp ​. I always start with those, “so I got that going for me”… :^)

Pulling logs & filtering out useless or spurious lines is something PowerShell is very good at. Automating things, not-so-much.

All this seems totally focused on making the best use of those planned downs, not day-to-day operations. That’s smart & super-fun since you get to face off with all/most of your stakeholders in the days/weeks/months leading up to it. A Project, which puts this in “Project Management” territory. Are you taking the ‘full-stop’ approach or a rolling downtime window per system or subsystem? Full-stop can turn into a big farking deal if there are too many cross-connected systems (“house of cards”), as the stakeholders all have to “prove your love” before you can turn things up again.

Sorry, I just felt I couldn’t leave with only an obscure Caddyshack reference… Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh…

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I also use OneNote extensively for stuff like this.

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If the server count is that high I would look into a dashboard software that tracks and collects using syslog, smnp, splunk etc. If you have a tightwad for a boss try Nagios. If he is easy then spend some money and have a third party come in and analyze the situation and provide a custom dashboard package.

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It sounds like your organization is a bit larger than mine. I looked into ITGlue (an IT documentation platform as a service) but it was just too expensive for our small team. Not sure how folks feel about these PaaS tools (I’m new to Spiceworks) but my take is that it’s worth the trial and even a couple months paid just to glean some insight into how others have solved these problems professionally.

That said, we didn’t go that route but my big takeaway was: the tools I choose need to have forms and views that automate the capture and review of this information to the highest degree possible. I search for existing documents on the web to help fill in my knowledge gaps when building the forms.

This might be a bit unorthodox/layfolk but I’ve been shifting toward mobile oriented (read: apps/webapps) that can be customized easily to fit my needs - namely Airtable. More recently I’ve been putting Notion.io through the ringer as a way to track and document projects, tasks, statuses, etc. This works for me as my teams are small and our information doesn’t change frequently or in complex ways.

I then build tables and forms in the above tools that capture the relevant and sensitive information. Where possible I set calendars/reminders to help automate my schedule.

We track as much information as is relevant to any particular resource: Licenses, date of purchase, version numbers, service details/dates, and so on.

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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python - free to read under a Creative Commons license. :wink:

Also - there are a lot of useful articles on PowerShell in our blog and here on SpiceWorks.

And actually AutoHotkey can simplify your life a lot.

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Sorry. Didn’t understand this. Do you mean that you didn’t organize your scripts to include assessments and raise alarms?

As long as these don’t raise alarms, all worked as expected and doesn’t need further analysis. If an alarm was raised by the scripts, they tell me what kind of alarm and where to start analyzing.

Yes, I do. And if it doesn’t meet my needs, then I adapt and customize for my needs. And vice-versa, I disable builtin reports nobody cares about in order to reduce noise as Jim has expressed it.

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We utilize a lot of the Office 365 apps in my environment. OneNote has a classroom feature that is very nice and allows tracking/sharing from a “student” vs “teacher” aspect or use as a team scrapbook. Sharepoint has become a staple as well with document librairies, lists and trackers all readily accessible to any member of the team.
It has always been our best practice to have an IT member of staff own a certain task but that person always keeps another member up-to-speed in lieu of vacations, sick days or other unforeseen circumstances. This ensures that the task is performed correctly and most efficiently on a day-to-day basis but has redundancy if needed.

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