Document the lab well enough for a stranger to use it

short · 45 min · Objective 2.7

Task

Write the documentation for your lab as if you were leaving tomorrow: a configuration record for each server, a network diagram in text form, and a runbook for one task. Then test the runbook the only way that proves anything -- follow it exactly as written, and fix every place you had to use knowledge that was not on the page.

Steps

  1. Write lab/docs/servers.csv with header name,role,os,version,address,gateway,dns,disks,owner,backup for every lab machine, gathering the values from the machines rather than memory.
  2. Draw the logical network in lab/docs/network.txt: subnets, VLANs, each server's address, and what connects to what.
  3. Write lab/docs/runbook-restart-web.txt, a numbered procedure for restarting the web service from the load-balancing lab safely, including how to confirm it worked.
  4. Take a snapshot, then follow the runbook exactly as written. Every time you needed something the runbook did not say, note it in lab/docs/gaps.txt, then fix the runbook.
  5. Record in lab/docs/where.txt where a copy of these documents would be kept so they can be read when the lab itself is down.

Verify

These checks run in a POSIX shell: Terminal on macOS or Linux, and on Windows Git Bash (it comes with Git for Windows) or WSL. A stock Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt has no awk or grep, so there the first line fails.

awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF<10 {bad++} END {print bad+0" incomplete server row(s)"}' lab/docs/servers.csv
grep -Ec '192.168.56.[0-9]+' lab/docs/network.txt
grep -Ec '^[0-9]+[.)]' lab/docs/runbook-restart-web.txt
grep -Eic 'verify|confirm|check' lab/docs/runbook-restart-web.txt
grep -c . lab/docs/gaps.txt
grep -Eic 'off|separate|print|cloud|another' lab/docs/where.txt

No incomplete rows, a network drawing with the real addresses, a numbered runbook that ends by checking its own result, at least one gap found in testing, and a copy kept somewhere other than the systems it describes. A runbook test that found no gaps usually means the author followed their memory rather than the page.

Notes

Configuration records gathered from the machines are also a baseline: comparing them with a later capture shows configuration drift, which the hardening lesson checks automatically.

This is an independent study companion for CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.