Template

for an
IT Operations Manual
Product Description

distributed by

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

Published in March 2005
http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 1

Summary and Scope

This template for an IT Operations Manual / IT Systems-Handbook will help you

that no important item is forgotten and

a common handbook structure is used throughout all systems. This will support easy
cross-system troubleshooting and documentation.

The resulting Operations Manual / Systems-Handbook is an important deliverable of the

overall IT system for

compliance with documentation-requirements for systems and processes required

by internal QA-department or internal auditing department or external auditors or other
organizations and laws

and it is an essential source of information to support

daily operations by clearly description of all active and proactive tasks to keep the
system running and prevent unplanned outages and by providing all information
required.
Put an end to excuses like I did not know that, I was not aware ...!

special operations e.g. outage planning and all special tasks from shut-down to
startup

troubleshooting by ensuring that all required information is immediately available.

Especially in case of problems this document should contain all information required by
internal staff or especially by external experts to analyse the problem

all other active and proactive tasks (e.g. Hardware / Software / License upgrades /
extensions to cover increasing usage) required to keep the system running within the
expected performance limits and prevent unplanned outages (e.g. because of an
expired license key or exceeding the license limit)

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 2

Audience
Development Manager
This template supports the efficient creation of an Operations Manual which is an
important part of the delivery.

Operations Manager
The operations manager should customize this template according to the requirements
of his team and afterwards communicate those customized document to the
Development Manager.

QA Manager
This template allows the QA Manager to check the Operations Manuals delivered for
completeness.

If you think that you don't need this template,

because ...... you have already Operations Handbooks for your Systems ?

Use this comprehensive template to cross-check if your current Operations Handbooks

are complete !... you store all information in an comprehensive Configuration
Management Database (CMDB) ?

Use this comprehensive template to cross-check if your CMDB covers all types of
information! ... you outsourced development and you expect the operations and system
handbook as part of the delivery

Use this template in the contract specifications to clearly express what you expect thus
to avoid misunderstanding between vendor and you about the content of the
operations handbook. Using this template for this purpose is much cheaper than solving
a single dispute with the vendor. ...it's much work to write the handbook and your
systems are running without it

because ...... the system runs even without Operations Manual. One member of your staff has
that in his head.

But the second person (who shares on-call duty with the main person) might know the
most important details how to re-start after a crash but might not be aware of all e.g.
monthly tasks. And latest at the first hand-over to a new main responsible person, the
new person will have to write down everything the former person tells. If the person
just knowing it leaves unexpected then all the information must be re-engineered definitely much more work than the initial documentation. Huge money was spent in the
area of Knowledge Management - not writing a Systems and Operations Handbook
means not even documenting required knowledge, making Knowledge Management
impossible.

A comprehensive System- and Operations Handbook is an important part of the

Operations / Production Managers Job Insurance. Without such a documentation he
can in case of an audit not proof that all tasks are assigned and checked for execution.

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 3

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................... 6
Purpose of this template............................... 6
Purpose of the generated "Systems and
Operations Handbook" ................................. 6
Audience.................................................... 7
Document / History...................................... 8
Missing Information .................................... 8
Related Company Internal Documents............ 8
Further Reading / Published Literature............ 8
Overview........................................................ 9
System Overview......................................... 9
Ownership and Key Contacts....................... 10
Hours of Operations - Primary / Secondary
Business Hours.......................................... 10
System Classification.................................. 11
System History.......................................... 11
Auditing History......................................... 11
Restore / Recovery Tests............................ 12
Legal Requirements.................................... 13
Duties.................................................. 13
List of Applicable Laws............................ 13
Overview Interfaces and interfacing Applications
............................................................... 15
External Interfaces (to 3rd Parties)........... 15
Interfaces to systems operated by other
department........................................... 15
Internal Interfaces (within IS Operations
Department)......................................... 15
Software used - Versions and Licenses.......... 16
Overview Environments.............................. 17
Responsibilities.......................................... 17
Operations Calendar....................................... 18
Change Management...................................... 19
Open Change Requests............................... 19
Closed Change Requests............................. 19
Configuration Management.............................. 20
Functional Configuration Management...........20
Technical Configuration Management............ 20
Configuration for National Language Support /
Charactersets............................................ 20
User Management.......................................... 21
Technical Users ......................................... 21
Personal Accounts for IT- and IS-Staff.......... 22
Personal Accounts for Application Users (except
IS- and IT-Staff)........................................ 22
Backup and Recovery..................................... 23
Backup, Restore and Recoverability
Requirements............................................ 23
Conceptual Explanation and Description ....... 24
Restore and Recovery Instructions............... 24
Backup Schedule........................................25
Scheduling Constraints........................... 25
Schedule............................................... 25
Correctness of Backup................................ 25

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Permanent Background Processes and Scheduling

for Jobs including Interfaces ........................... 26
Shutdown and Startup / Planned Outages and
Changes....................................................... 27
Maintenance Window.................................. 27
Organization of an Shutdown (Planned Outage)
of this application....................................... 27
Impact of an Shutdown of this application..... 27
Impact of an outage of an interfacing system on
this system............................................... 28
Checklist for a planned outage..................... 29
Daily, Weekly, Monthly and other regular Duties 31
Monitoring, Troubleshooting, Escalation............ 32
Error Messages ......................................... 32
Identification of devices and users................ 32
Known Problems........................................ 33
Overview ............................................. 33
Details.................................................. 33
Monitoring and Ticket Handling................ 34
Tabular overview of events...................... 34
Detailed Description of Events..................35
Ticket Handling.......................................... 37
Irregular jobs, e.g. reorganizations, upgrades,
migrations.................................................... 38
Checklist "Issues"...................................... 38
Time Table................................................ 39
PI's, KPIs, OLA's and SLAs........................... 40
Detailed KPI Description..............................41
Known Limitations.......................................... 42
Functional Limitations................................. 42
Technical Limitations.................................. 42
Capacity Related Limitations........................ 42
Purging and Archiving..................................... 43
Strong growing data .............................. 43
Slow growing data ................................. 44
Logfiles / Errorfiles..................................... 44
Appendix A - Configuration Parameters............. 45
Non-Default Parameters of the Operating
System and Filesystem............................... 45
Non-Default Parameters of the Database....... 45
All Configuration Parameters of the Application
............................................................... 45
Technical Configuration Parameters.......... 45
Functional Configuration Parameters......... 45
Appendix B - Capacity Plan ............................. 46
Initial Capacity Plan.................................... 46
Initial Usage Factors................................... 46
Initial Business Forecast.......................... 46
Initial Capacity Forecast for next 3 and 12
months................................................. 47
Summary and Issues of Capacity Reports
against forecast......................................... 48
Revised Capacity Plans............................... 48
Appendix C - Incident Log............................... 49
Appendix D - Problem Log............................... 50
Open Issues.............................................. 50
Closed Issues............................................ 50
Appendix E - Change Log................................ 51
Appendix F: Duties DBA and Application Support 52
Appendix G - Documentation Template for
Interfaces..................................................... 59

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 4

Deliverables
Immediately after your credit card payment was automated processed you can download
following file:

Filename
ophb.zip

Size
450
KB

Description
Zip-file containing all of the following files

Within this ZIP-file you will find following files:

Filename
ophb.pdf
ophb.rtf

pages
64

Description
Document in Adobe Acrobat format, Acrobat-reader required.
Same content, editable RTF-format, can be imported into any word
processor.

Purchase
You can purchase online and immediately download at

http://www.it-checklists.com/template_operations_manual_purchase.html

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 5

Service We write your Operations Manual!

The Operations Manual can be delivered in English and German.

Your Situation
You do need an Operations Manual.
Although our Template for an Operations Manual enables you to do it yourself, fast
and efficient, you don't have even that time.

Our Vision
Our vision is a systems handbook which not only satisfies every auditor, but is also a major
help for your daily and non-daily operations. Our consultants have in addition to experience in
application support also excellent writing skills ("Technical Writer") in English and German and
are able to compile a systems handbook...

by providing application support we learn how the system works and fill step by step
our Handbook-Template

by "Knowledge Engineering" - Reading available information and interviewing your

application support staff

Our Challenge
Our challenge is to create and deliver your Operations Manual without consuming much of
your time.

How we will achieve this:

The Challenge

Our Approach

Save your time

We come prepared to meetings - we carefully study all information you provided us in

advance carefully.

Save time of your

staff / experts

We don't ask to draw pictures and describe - we have a good guess, draw the pictures and
offer descriptions. Your experts just need to select the appropriate statements or add some
corrections.

Hunt (research) the If the required information cannot be found in any existing documents - we don't hesitate to
missing information study the design- and development documentation - and your technical staff does not know
them, then we will search for it.
If you want then we search e.g. for configuration information in config files and database
tables - we are experienced conducting "hands on" searches.
Application
Interfaces

The main application processes are often well documented in the vendor's manual, but the
interfaces with other applications are the real challenge.
But you can be sure that we do know how to document the borderline ("Handover Point")
between the teams operating the interfacing applications! - Check our Documentation
Template for Application Interfaces !
(http://www.it-checklists.com/eai_application_interface_checklist.html )
(If you contract us to write your Operations Manual, then you don't need to buy this template
- we will use it to increase our efficiency. If you already purchased this document and
contract us, then we will discount the price you already paid for the document.)

The life cycle

Most changes in the application or on in interfacing applications require an update of the

Operations Manual.
For the case that the check item "Operations Manual updated?" is not already on your
"checklist for release to production", then we will motivate you and support you with
arguments that it gets added there.

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 6

We are different and we work different

We love graphics and
tables

Graphics visualizing the data flow through different system processes and interfaces
build the core of the handbook. Factual information for all the items in the graphic are
presented in tabular form. Free text is just used for explanations and background
information.

The Delivery

Just sending the text file is the most simple and most common delivery, but
unfortunately storing the file on a shared place (file system, your intranet, your
document management system) is too often the last activity of this file. Never
accessed again. Often such forgotten, that the operations manual is not even known
to new staff or staff filling in during vacation.

Our preferred "Handover" is to conduct together with the Operations Manager and the
application support team a "Production Review for Application <x>" Meeting. Perhaps such review meetings are already conducted quarterly or yearly. In many
points of those meetings questions like:

"Where is this documented?",

"To whom is this task assigned?"

should be asked - and answered by showing the related section in the Operations
Handbook.

Products related to this Service:

Template Operations Manual /
Operations Handbook

http://www.it-checklists.com/template_operations_manual.html

Documentation Template for

Application Interfaces

http://www.it-checklists.com/EAI_application_interface_checklist.html

Checklist for Production Release

http://www.it-checklists.com/production_release_checklist.html

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 7

How Mercury Consulting Ltd. can help you

Mercury Consulting Limited (MCL) is a professional consultancy providing experience, support
and training in IS/IT operations for companies during high-time-pressure startup phase and
following consolidation phase, especially in the Telecom-market.

Our Products
you can purchase online and immediately download
at our eBook-Shop
Our Checklists and Templates will help you to ensure that good or best practice is not only
known but consistently applied!

Database Independent Products

Product
150 Non functional
Requirements.

Benefit
Requirements Template with 150 non functional
requirements for selecting or developing robust, reliable,
stable and manageable applications to meet the Service
Level Agreements (SLA's).
For external RFP's (Request for Proposal) and for internal
development.

Checklist for Data Migration

65 important questions to identify and address or exclude

typical migration pitfalls in an early phase of the project,
thus ensuring the confidence for keeping the time plan.

Template: Systems- and

Operations Handbook

Template to establish that documentation auditors like to

see!

Interface Checklist

Those questions which you need to ask before starting the

development!
Requirements, Checklist and Template for Planning,
Defining and Documenting Application Interfaces.

Checklist for Production Release

and System Handover

Checklist for small and medium projects focusing on nonfunctional aspects for operations team.
Simple but effective!

Business Requirements for

Archiving and Purging

Template with Business Requirements for Archiving &

Restore & Purging. Not removing old customer data can
cause conflicts with privacy laws. Business must act and
clearly specify what to purge and what to archive!

Application Health Check:

Using this template to check your systems - and

DOCUMENT the findings might show you even more
potential issues beyond invalid objects.

Stability Assessment
Backup SLA / OLA

Operations Level Agreement (OLA) for Backup and

Recovery

Technology Selection for

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Requirements Template to define your requirements for

and constraints related to disaster recovery.
Decision Template to select the best suitable technology
group for disaster recovery.

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 8

Oracle Database Specific Products

The author is Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) for 9i and 10g, but the products are not
authorized by Oracle.

Product

Benefit

Template for Database Operations

Level Agreement (OLA) / SLA

If a Service Level Manager needs to offer to Business a

Service Level Agreement (SLA) for an End-to-End IS/ITService, he sign this SLA only after he arranged within
IS/IT for each system or component used to provide this
service an Operations Level Agreement (OLA) with
the providing team or department.
This document provides a template for such an
Operations Level Agreement (OLA) for Oracle Databases
containing the agreed values and for QA-purpose also
the measures implemented to reduce the likelihood of
violations of those agreed values.
It does not only deal with availability, but contains also
comprehensive service catalogue of advanced DBA
services and a template for the Service Level Reporting
(SLR).

Database Health Check - Part 1:

Stability Assessment

Stability Assessment of your Oracle Database.

Most Application- and Database-Crashes can be avoided
when detecting early indicators and reacting to them.
Be Proactive - Check Now!

DBA and Application Support:

Checklist to ensure that all 60 DBA-duties are assigned:

Job Description and Self

Assessment

System DBA, Development DBA and Application DBA

versus Application Support
If you have just a job role "DBA", but not a dedicated
job role "Application DBA" those 19 duties must be
explicitly assigned to either "Application Support" or to
the "DBA" - otherwise they might not be executed!
Detect unassigned tasks before an auditor reports
them !
This product addresses disputes between System DBA
and Application Support (or, if existing, dedicated
Application DBA) regarding the responsibility for the
application's database objects.

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 9

Our free Whitepapers

http://www.mercury-consulting-ltd.com/wp/whitepapers.html
Whitepaper
The Importance of Application
Level Monitoring.

Benefit and Description

Keeping your applications free from invalid objects is an
important task, but does not guarantee error free
operations. This free whitepaper explains the difference
between "Application Level Monitoring" to "Database
Monitoring" and "System/Server/OS"-Monitoring.

Important Facts about RedologUnderstanding the topic archivelog volume can avoid
and Archivelog in Oracle Databases unexpected troubles when applying changes or
for Change Managers and
conducting upgrades.
Application Support Staff
This awareness paper explains why Change Managers
must ask questions about the archivelog volume created
during changes and upgrades and why application
support staff and not only the DBA - must understand
this topic.
The Danger of Invalid Database
Objects

An awareness paper for Operations Managers and

Application Support describing the problems and
potential risks caused by invalid objects in an Oracle
Database.

Private or Public Synonyms or no A decision support paper visualizing the pro's and
Synonyms at all ?
contras on a single page in tabular form and evaluating
the arguments.

Our Services
http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com/services.htm

About the Author

The Author of those white papers and products is an

with 12 years experience as DBA and 6 years experience in Telecommunications Companies.

http://www.Mercury-Consulting-Ltd.com

Copyright 2005-2006 Mercury Consulting Ltd.

http://www.IT-Checklists.com 10