on Dec 4th, 2008We Suck At Documentation
That’s the most accurate statement El Sidekick has made in a long, long while. What is it about documentation? Why is it the 800 pound gorilla in the room that everyone just walks around? Well I sure as shit am not going to solve that problem tonight. Besides El Sidekick verbally proclaiming our incompetance there was another reason I brought it up. Faced with a disaster recovery test, one that I insisted on doing before the end of the year [insert self directed insult here for that idea], my mind has been in overdrive on what all would be required should an actual disaster strike.
Sure we have a plan but really how good is a plan if you suck at documentation? Let’s tie this diatribe all together here. One area that came to mind in stressing over this DR test and our complete sucking at documentation was our clusters. A mature cluster can have a whole lotta resources on it and when your documentation skills are about as solid as jello a disaster scares you. Faced with this I figured there has to be a way to document a cluster in a more efficient manner than right clicking on every resource and selecting properties. I am proud to declare there is an easy way to document a cluster. MPSRPT_CLUSTER.exe creates a cab file that contains a whole bunch of files used by Microsoft in troubleshooting a problem. One of those files is SERVERNAME_CLUSTER_PROPERTIES.TXT. This file contains the properties of every resource. Easy peazy as they say.