After working this contract for over a year, I feel like I've got a pretty good idea of the current equipment, installation standards, some of the exceptions and some of the chronic issues support staff face. I even had the opportunity to visit a few sites to see the office culture, politics and equipment limitations that we have to work with.
Even though the bulk of the installations were done around the same time period with some really good installation standards like what goes to what port, IP addressing standards, etc.. things change over the years for a multitude of reasons:
- replacing equipment due to upgrades or failure
- moves, adds and changes got out of hand
- troubleshooting
- office renovations
That is when I proposed to my boss that I conduct a "remote site audit". I created a fairly comprehensive list of all the items and configuration details that I wanted to ensure was consistent with all sites (30+). He immediately saw the benefit of it and gave me the green light to proceed.
I think the key point is to make a list, even if you are not responsible for that equipment. a list will ensure consistency, especially when you pass on a request to another department for assistance.
For example;
- Routers; ensure all active ports have accurate descriptions
- Routers: verify all routes are valid and failover is configured properly
- Switch: review vlan, ip addressing and login accounts
- DHCP: validate that all reserved ip addresses are in use
- UPS: ensure email alerts are configured properly - and test
- PDU: add port descriptions
- access points: ensure all AP's meet naming standard, note any old, obsolete ones are replaced
- cameras: check if all cameras are online and aligned properly
I'm sure you get the idea. So far I've discovered a LOT of little things that were never done properly and some fairly significant issues that would have been a HUGE issue down the road.
A big part of this exercise it to setup alerting with equipment that we don't directly monitor though our NMS.
I would encourage you to be aware of your sites/networks and ensure things are documented and configured as expected. The biggest challenge you will encounter is how to document your standards and ensuring everyone follows them.
