The concept of a runbook, whether paper-based or online, is to
provide a source of expertise to the individuals and teams who are
responsible for the day-to-day operation and administration of systems
in the datacenter. Today's datacenter often comprises a large number of
networked servers and the challenge is to be able to manage them
collectively from a central point with as few staff as is reasonable
to perform the job reliably.
From time to time, datacenters also have to spend heavily on contracted,
skilled systems administration staff to assist with the implementation
of upgrades and new installations, only to find that the knowledge they
both bring and acquire disappears with the contractors when they leave.
The advantage of a properly managed and
maintained runbook is to
encapsulate all such knowledge in a way which is easily accessible to
datacenter staff, with beneficial results such as:
the encapsulation of procedures ensures the availability of preferred
practice
dependence on skilled systems administrators is limited to exceptional
circumstances
operations costs may be reduced by delegation of complex procedures to
less skilled personnel
enforced standards lead to a reduction in operational errors
skilled technicians are used only for exceptional operations and
administration duties
service levels improve as the result of much improved access to
procedures
As
an example of what can be done with runbooks, Sun Microsystems
have created an online runbook product (Sun Microsystems i-Runbook
Service) which is delivered via a web browser. It is available in
several versions which, with the exception of the most basic, may be
tailored and augmented by users to suit the needs of their own
particular data center. One version is called the i-Runbook Automated
Edition; it contains over 150 Solaris 10 procedures, each of which may
be run at the single click of a button. The Automated Edition has been
implemented using COSduty-SSA foundations and so may be conveniently
extended to include full COSduty-SSA functionality via value-for-money
upgrades.
The non-automated i-Runbook Service delivers major
benefits in its own right. However, the additional possibility of
running procedures directly from the i-Runbook window allows not only
obvious productivity advantages, but also brings other not so
obvious benefits which appeal strongly to data center managers. These are
especially welcome in today's climate of increased vigilance in the area
of access security and the associated area of compliance with
legislation on corporate governance.
The additional benefits include:
preferred practice is not only immediately available but may be
enforced
the limited involvement of skilled systems administrators may be
monitored and audited
operational efficiency may be further increased by reducing the
running of procedures to a single click
operational errors are practically eliminated because procedures are
pre-programmed and tested
skilled technicians are released to develop new procedures
service levels may be calculated and reported from the data collected
by procedure monitoring
strict role-based access controls on operators and privileged users
leads to much improved and demonstrable security
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