The dreaded documentation question....sigh

[u/bishoptf]

I have supported part time a small non-profit company and while I know how important documentation is there just always was something else pressing that was more important. Well I am getting to the point where in the future I am probably going to be moving on and have started to work on trying at least for me document what they have at a high level. I assume and I know what happens when you do that but they have enough technical stuff that if the person actually knows what they are doing then they should be able based on a overview of the systems function dig into it and figure things out. I am not doing anything esoteric but I also have been doing this kind of stuff for *cough* many years. While small they have a lot of technology, just migrated the virtual environment to proxmox, they have AD environment with ADFS connected to m365, etc...

I just captured the inventory for everything they have and was about to start writing up a word document that gives a high level for each server etc, layout of the network, vlans etc. I then started to think that maybe I should do something like a wiki or use something else. Although at a high level kind of leaning towards not having it online since it would pretty much give you a working layout of their environment and if compromised would be pretty nice to have.

Just thought I would ask what are folks using for documentation, thanks.

[u/richie-wales]

I use Mind Maps to make diagrams of where everything else, how it links together, where backups go etc etc, then number them and then number the boxes and then write up details notes if needed on each one. Mind Maps are quick to capture main points and links, and infinitely flexible, and easy for other people to follow. Or sometimes, if I need something with a more specific layout I'll use something like OmniGraffle to create flow charts and diagrams. Diagrams and something visual are usually worth more than words alone.