+Operational procedures are vital to an IT organization, and they provide guidance on the proper ways to get things done. Creating documentation of the network and systems you work on is very important to the organization. The documentation produced has positive effects on production and problem solving.

Documentation is used to help during problem solving and production as well. It should be also be the last step of the work you perform.

Network Topology Diagrams

Diagram that describes the entire network layout

Use diagrams when performing network troubleshooting; the documentation allows you better understand the problem while you perform additional documentation as you learn new information.

Scratch Diagram

not formal documentation, but just a very rough sketch of network layout

Finish Diagram

the final version of a diagram or network topology.

Logical Diagrams

useful for diagnostic purposes and for creating high-level documentation.

allows you to see how a network works and represent the logical flow of information

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Physical Diagrams

also useful for diagnostic purposes and for creating documentation.

Physical diagrams define a network’s physical connections

Physical network diagrams show all the physical assets inside buildings, floors, and rooms.

Whether the devices are inside a telecom room, data center room, or office space rooms, think of it as though you are seeing a bird’s eye view of your floor.

With these diagrams, you can visualize how everything is connected — from ports of a device, cables going to and from ports, the racks/cabinets, and the equipment inside the rack, such as patch panels and servers, and all of the cabling inside the racks too.

It details why a network works by detailing exactly how the information will flow through all the physical points of contact

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Knowledge Base/Articles

If time is invested into solving a pretty tricky problem, then time also needs to be invested into documenting the issue so someone in the future won’t spend nearly as much time + energy trying to figure it out.

A Knowledge Base is a collection of problems with solutions that both your IT staff and end users can use to solve problems.

Ex. Microsoft Knowledge Base

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us⁠

The Microsoft Knowledge Base contains more than 200,000 public articles on various issues and their solutions

Knowledge Bases can be created by the manufacturer or by the internal IT Team.

Most of the time, the knowledge base is searchable, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Incident: Documentation

An Incident is any event that is unusual or outside of the normal processes.

This can be network security incidents, network outage incidents, and customer service incidents.

Incident Document

a record or log of an unusual event

used for further review after the incident has subsided so that it is not repeated.

this document should be completed ASAP so the details aren’t forgotten.

Used by C-Level people in the organization to communicate with the media with transparency about a major incident that happened.

Incident Document Outline

Date and Time

Most important because several incidents can happen on the same day

It allows you to distinguish between different incidents

Use the UTC (Universal Time Code) to someone anywhere in the world can know the time

Summary

summary of what happened

Root Cause

the ultimate reason the incident occurred

Needs to be identified ASAP so the incident won’t happen over and over again.

Network team’s first responsibility

Actions Taken

Actions taken temporarily to rectify the incident

“Band-Aid” fix so the business can continue

Remediation

the ultimate fix that will repair the root cause of the incident.

could be as simple as installing a patch or as complex as redesigning the whole network

Services Impacted

Details all the network systems and businesses that were impacted during the incident

defines the severity of the incident

Recommendations

details the next steps to take to remediate the issue

describes how to avoid similar incidents in the future

Regulatory and Compliance Policy

Compliance is the overall execution of policies, processes, and procedures caused by regulations

Compliance Policies are used to make sure IT companies meet the standards of laws, policies, and regulations

Regulations are laws that are externally controlled and enforced onto an organization

Various Regulations in the IT industry

SOX

SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), affects publicly traded companies

regulates how companies maintain financial records and how they protect sensitive financial data.

the SEC enforces SOX compliance

HIPAA

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) affects health-care providers and providers that give access to health records.

regulates how a patient’s information is secured and processed during the patient’s care.

Department of Health enforces HIPAA

FERPA

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Acts) affects education providers and organizations that process student records.

regulates the handling of student records (grades, report cards, and disciplinary records).

Department of Education enforces FERPA

GLBA

GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) affects providers of financial services

requires financial institutions that offer loans, investment advice, or insurance, to safeguard customer information and detail the practices for sharing consumer information.

was created to protect consumer’s information and prevent the loss of consumer information

Acceptable Use Policy

AUP (acceptable use policy) is an internal policy used to protect an organization’s resources from employee abuse or mishandling.

What is acceptable use of company assets?

The systems included should be in the AUP should be the telephone, internet, email, and subscription services.

Password Policy

Examples of a Good Password Policy.

Policy created to ensure that users make adequately strong passwords

Passwords should never be shared among employees

Passwords should never be disclosed to others for privacy reasons

Passwords should never be written down

Passwords should not be guessable

Passwords expire every 30, 45, 60, or 90 days.

Inventory Management

Inventory management has two purposes:

Keep track of all assets

routers, switches, cables, fiber modules, etc.

put asset tags on everything

Allow IT to internally keep track of replacements and upgrades

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