Traceable work in IT networks

Last updated: December 1, 2021

Of gods in nerdy T-shirts…

Everyone who works in IT support knows this situation. You’re on-site with a customer or colleague who is dealing with a technical problem that is unsolvable for them. As soon as the IT professional enters the room, the problems solve themselves as if by magic. Every now and then, the IT voodoo is supplemented with the laying on of hands on the screen and the user can’t get out of his amazement.

… and the dark side of the power of an IT professional

But the exact opposite can also be the case. Namely, whenever seemingly unpredictable things happen as soon as the IT professional starts with his bewitching and inscrutable machinations.

Suddenly, servers that have been running for months, or even years, without any problems, fail to start. Services on the servers quit their previously unrestricted and problem-free service with error messages.

And the situation becomes even more precarious when errors, whose origin is suspected in one of the past maintenance sessions, occur for the first time only after days or even weeks.

Incredible complexity

Unlike what you see in vendor promotional videos or your trusted IT sales rep, companies rarely work with an IT environment that is new from the ground up. There older versions and hardware are combined with newer equipment and operating systems, and some should actually no longer be used productively due to the lack of support, according to the manufacturer.

The interrelationships that arise from the maintenance of IT components are thus often not apparent at first glance, even to the professional. And if only small things are done, such as applying a patch, then one does not expect that there will be difficulties here. If you update an operating system that is too old, old software may no longer work properly. If I switch off an old server and then try to restart it, old hard disks can become a problem if they no longer want to start up.

The clean slate

In order to better understand and control the interrelationships, even minor work in IT should be recorded. But it is also better for the IT professional if his actions are well documented. This prevents misunderstandings about the actions performed and their consequences. In the event of an emergency, however, it also makes it easier to reconstruct errors and correct them more quickly.

Record traceable activities in Docusnap

In order to document activities that occur during a repair, maintenance or replacement in the IT network, Docusnap offers a suitable functionality out of the box. Using a Windows domain as an example, we show you in our short video how easily an activity can be documented and evaluated. This makes it possible to track when and which changes were made at any time.

 

PS: Did you know that you can also test Docusnap for free? Just jump into the world of automated documentation and inventory and use the time you gain for other important things.