Documenting Recovery Procedures

You should develop step-by-step procedures for getting a computer back online after various failures. You can use these procedures for:

• Testing a new computer before putting the computer into a production environment.
• Training new server administrators and operators.
• Creating a Server Operations Handbook, which should include procedures for setting up new user accounts, doing backups, maintaining the Emergency Repair Disk, and other common administrative tasks.

You should review your documentation when you make configuration changes to your computers or network. Updating the documentation is especially important when you install new versions of the operating system or change the utilities that you use to maintain your system.