[mdlug] App to organize info about servers and services

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Sat, 2009-10-31 at 16:20 -0400, Aaron Kulkis wrote:
> Ron Blanchett wrote:
> > Maybe a wiki is what you need if you want all this info in one location.
> I'm compiling a bunch of data about WW2 era combat ships for
> a naval simulation I'm working on....and briefly thought about
> putting all the information in a wiki table.
> Then I remembered:  Wiki tables are a real pain to edit.

Ditto!  I' a maintainer of a lot of documentation - and anytime anyone
says Wiki I run screaming from the room.  Figuratively of course, or at
least almost figuratively.  I believe there is a real reason the vast
majority of the Wikis one finds are virtually empty or full of out-dated
information - Wikis are a usability nightmare.  

> So I'm sticking with an Open Office spreadsheet (as unweildly
> as the spreadsheet is, it's way more flexible than the
> Wiki.

Yep.  And try explaining to an average user how to edit a Wiki?  They
will look at you are crazy - because you are, and not because they are
stupid or lazy.  Seriously "[DESCRIPTION LINKY-THING-HERE]"... something
only an I.T. geek could love.  And tables in a Wiki... 

I use Open Office write for most documentation.  If you keep information
in small units it is *much* easier to maintain [which is the harder part
of documentation - maintenance makes the initial writing of
documentation look easy].  Then you can use Master Documents (ODM) to
bind all those parts into one document - OO will generate indexes,
tables of contents, etc... and the excellent cross references let you
easily embed links to other sections of other documents.  Turn around
and spit the whole thing into an indexed PDF where cross references are
actual links!   OO is an *awesome* documentation tool - way easier and
more powerful than any Wiki.  Combine that with any decent document
management solution (groupware server) and it is &@^&*$@ sweet.

Having the documentation in an output like PDF is really important.  If
you need the documentation to repair some server or fix some network
issues and the documentation is on the network....

> > If you don't mind spreading it out then get a asset management software for
> > the inventor.
> > I am not sure what you would use for the other stuff.
> > On 10/31/09, Carl T. Miller <carl at carltm.com> wrote:
> >> At work we currently have several spreadsheets with various
> >> information about our servers and services.  We keep track
> >> of make, model, serial number, warranty status, OS, updates,
> >> etc.  We also have another one which keeps track of virtual
> >> websites, project managers, contacts, etc.  Then another one
> >> for middleware info.  And another for services such as smtp
> >> and ftp where one server will support multiple domains.
> >> Are there any good apps (hopefully web based) that you can
> >> recommend to keep all of this info in one place that is
> >> easily searchable?
-- 
OpenGroupware developer: awilliam at whitemice.org
<http://whitemiceconsulting.blogspot.com/>
OpenGroupare & Cyrus IMAPd documenation @
<http://docs.opengroupware.org/Members/whitemice/wmogag/file_view>