DOCUMENTATION is necessary:
	- to ensure reliability.
	- to provide for recoverability.
	- to maintain consistency across workstations and servers.
	- to provide smooth upgrades.
	- for troubleshooting.
	- to provide efficient vendor support.
	- to manage the allocation of resources.
	- because what was done will NOT be remembered.
	- as a way of saving time and avoiding waste.
	- to avoid having to relearn things.
	- as it allows other professionals to step in and support systems.

DOCUMENTATION includes:
	- an overview of the entire system  
	- the general configuration and purpose of each workstation and server within the system
	- the definition of the standard image described in specific detail
	- the specific process used to create the standard image, 
	   including detailed commands and syntax (a detailed step-by-step)
	- the specific parameters used to configure the standard image 
	- the detailed commands and syntax used to configure the standard image
	- the detailed commands and syntax used on a system that deviates from the standard image
	- specific system information, i.e. serial numbers, mac addresses, hardware components, etc.
	- specific modules loaded as part of the system if different than the standard image 
	- specific applications loaded on the system if different than the standard image 


Most people do not like documentation and feel it unnecessary.  In most sys
admin positions you don't deal with it, you're working to resolve problems and
build to others specifications, you dial it in as needed with little or no record.   
You're dealing with the issues on a recurring basis and know the stuff by rote.  
Documentation is usually not done in environment like that. 
(you tend to count on your backups if something fails, but a lot of downtime is
spent recovering and figuring things out because it wasn't documented...  it's a perennial
issue in most IS departments....  programmers and admins don't like documentation (myself
included) and don't do it... then it bites you hard when there is a problem...)

One trick is to set up your shell history to preserve commands used.  Then periodically
clean up the files saved using sort and uniq to extract a list of commands.  It might
be a good idea to test the commands as they may have been entered in error.

An example of what you can gather from doing this is seen in this page:

http://www.wagoneers.com/UNIX/FIND/find-usage.html.


=====================================================================
        john meister          sr CAD sys admin,   
        http://www.wagoneers.com/    john@wagoneers.com 
                   http://www.wagoneers.com/UNIX/Courses.html
=====================================================================