Documentation? What good is that?

Good documentation is really nice to have. I did a Server Migration, or transition this last Friday (the 14th). We went from Server 2003 to Server 2008, and now I'm realizing that my documentation was a little out of date.

I would like to use my methods as material for this blog and the podcast. This way other's can learn from my experience and mistakes, or relate how they do things. After all, the challenges that I face are the same challenges that thousands, if not millions, or IT guys in my shoes are facing every day.

Well, just to clear up any misconceptions, I'm not perfect. One of the areas that I find "challenging" is documentation.

It isn't until now that I realize how many times something gets changed or added in order to fix something, or because it's needed right away. Then, in the rush for the next fire, it never gets documented. In this case, I'm pretty lucky, because this wasn't a system failure, where I didn't have anything but the documentation to refer to, but rather a planned transition where I can still look back at the old server and get the stuff I missed.

Now, I can't complain too much, since I do have some documentation in the first place, and to be honest, nothing big is missing, it's just a whole bunch of tiny stuff that I was missing. I'm sure we've all heard the old saying that "the devil is in the details". It's true. With all of the changes that I made, including migrating server roles, DNS, DHCP, WINS, and close to 2 terabytes of data, all without any impact to the user, now I have all of this petty stuff, that I should have planned for, bothering my users and eating up my day.

Of course, we live and we learn. The truth is that none of my users were too inconvenienced, and it only took an hour or two to get everything straightened out. So in my mind, this was a pretty successful migration.

Art and I talked a little more in depth about the process for our podcast, which will hit the feed on Wednesday. I would love to hear how you have handled your transitions / migrations, as well as any horror stories you may have.