Alt+Ctrl+Start

A continuation from https://altcontrolstart.wordpress.com/2024/06/23/what-happens-when-you-enter-professional-development-or-how-about-it-professional-development-what-do-you-find-pt-2/

Below are just some examples on how I document what I learn, items/topics of interest and problems and resolutions.

Note- please bear in mind the content below are examples.

• What I learned about AWS instances
  • Date 19/8/24
  • To navigate to the instances of my app, I need to use search at the top of the AWS console and type EC2.
    • Click EC2 and this will bring you to all the instances in that AWS account
  • To log into an AWS instance, I can use the EC2 login function
    • However, I can only log in if this function is configured and setup for me
      • Speak to the top Devops team to confirm if they are able to set this up for your instances.

• What does this command do in Linux?
  • ls -ltra
  • This command allows me to list my files and folders in Linux.
  • It also reveals all the hidden files and folders
  • ‘ls’ – means to display the files and folders.
  • ‘–‘ means to pass an option /variable
  • ‘-l’ means to arrange the files and folders in a list
  • ‘-t’ means to arrange the files and folders by time in descending order
  • ‘-r’ means to arrange the files and folders in reverse order
  • ‘-a’ means to display all hidden files and folders
  • Note to self – when you pass ‘-‘ you can add multiple letters on the end
    • E.g. ls -l, ls-lt, ls -ltr, ls-tr etc.
  • Extra
    • I can run this on AWS instances and Linux consoles.
    • What are windows equivalent? I need to research this. Note to self.

• Incident ABC123: Student Database offline
  • Incident statement and summary
    • At 7.00am it was reported by a student that an error occurred while saving their work into their student home folder
    • Error message, “There was an issue while saving your files. Please contact IT helpdesk.”
      • <Make believe screenshot provided here>
  • Troubleshooting:
    • No files we’re able to be saved into the student database.
    • Checked the last time a file was saved into the student database.
      • Checked the logs of the database. Last time file was saved was at 6.00am
    • Checked if there were any changes or patching at the time the issue was reported.
      • Change XYZ456 was being executed at 6.30am
      • This change appears to be a database certificate update.
    • The affected server / host address is student.database.com
    • No other changes we’re being conducted at this time
    • Logged into the database server, student.database.com
    • Checked the logs of the server
      • At 6.35am when the certificate was being updated the logs also stopped capturing traffic
    • Root cause identified. Cert change on student database server being conducted caused it to go into an idle state.
      • Restart is needed
  • Resolution:
    • Upon finding out the certificate for that database was changed, the implementer of that change did not restart the database server
      • By not restarting the database no files we’re not able to be written into the database and caused the database to go into an idle state.
  • Other:
    • Need to update the change procedure for any certificate changes to also include a step to restart the database.

Summary:

It might sound simple to document but as you can see from the examples above, documentation can become quite complex and long winded. One line documentation isn’t going to cut it. Think about what you’re documenting and put down as much but meaningful information into your notes, jobs, incidents, tickets and emails. You also need to be aware who the audience is when documenting.