Physical System/Software Logs

hey all!

Was wondering what everyone does in practice for logging system information. What I'm looking for is more of a layout, protocol, and presentation. I'm not talking about OS system logs, but physical, hand written logs about OS installation, specs, software, and all changes typically made to software/hardware throughout a computer's life in an office network... I realize not many admins keep these sort of things up to date - but idealy, if we were.....what would you do to organize such a system?

Thanks!

The best documentation I've ever seen was over 3 inches thick and bound by Kinkos. It was for a clustered exchange server with a 100 gig of databases located on a SAN. It started out with a very detailed description of exactly what was in the machine, who to call for parts, how to replace them, etc. Then it went on to detail the OS and applications (mainly exchange). It covered how to install, troubleshoot, backup, and restore the entire box. Not to sound like a complete geek but it was really a piece of art. The amount of detail including screenshots, part numbers, firmware versions, and even dll/exe/driver versions was absolutely amazing. Of course, if you're going to spend $300K on a single server & SAN I guess you can afford to do it right.

Big companies have licensing s/w & audit tools to do all this .... it can be as complicated or simple as you want to make it, if you choose to 'diy' ...

silencio: sounds interesting, are there any online examples that you could think of? I came accross one and it was great, I just can't remember where it was.

confus-ed: Can you think of the names of the tools that big companies have used? I have been working on something by myself, but wanted to see how others were doing it. Obviously there doesn't seem to be a 'standard' or something close that people would follow - I guess that would all depend on the organization.

sLIVER: pretty much the same thing that I am looking for, and posted a inquiry in the TECH TIPS forum- haven't gotten much in the way of a response as yet.

In the research that I have done, checking in other posts and websites, I came up with Aida32 and SiSoft Sandra. I am not sure if either will suit your needs, give it a look-see!

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Originally Posted by sLIVER

silencio: sounds interesting, are there any online examples that you could think of? I came accross one and it was great, I just can't remember where it was.

confus-ed: Can you think of the names of the tools that big companies have used? I have been working on something by myself, but wanted to see how others were doing it. Obviously there doesn't seem to be a 'standard' or something close that people would follow - I guess that would all depend on the organization.

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http://techrepublic.com.com/5120-624...html?sort=date

There are a few good documents at the above URL. I don't know of anything online as comprehensive as the documentation I mentioned. I think the best way to approach it would be to start with one question: How does every single part of this system work?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sLIVER

confus-ed: Can you think of the names of the tools that big companies have used? I have been working on something by myself, but wanted to see how others were doing it. Obviously there doesn't seem to be a 'standard' or something close that people would follow - I guess that would all depend on the organization.

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Errrrrrrr No ! not offhand anyway :D ... but it occured to me something with a trial offer might be much more useful practically, they are all much of a muchness if you ask me anyway, the only involvement I have is when someone asks me for a list of licences which usually sens me into a panic :D !

Anyway I googled you this KeyAuditor & KeyServer, Integrated Software Auditing & License Management , which has a trial & lots of piccys to look at ! :D

silencio...great link...that's what I'm thinking...