003: WikiDNA Overview
This one-page document is intended to introduce you to the purpose and value of documentation with the WikiDNA methodology. WikiDNA is an open source effort, taking advantage of the public communities to create a single common manner for documenting any complete computing environment. For more information about WikiDNA go to our GitHub Project Page.
WikiDNA is the organized framework (skeletal structure) for putting information about your network together. It takes the evolutionary process of the network and brings all the hardware software and configuration file specifics together. The end result of such a tool would be efficient recovery from a disaster, establishing the productivity of end users and putting the valuable data back to work. WikiDNA was designed to be a scalable solution for networks of 5 to 5000 devices. It is for organizations that consist of a single or multiple locations. Additionally it adheres to redundancy practices to prevent data loss in the event of a disaster. Documentation is the process of collecting and maintaining information. WikiDNA establishes guidelines for the type and quantity of information to collect. Documentation does not have to be generated by a proprietary inventory application, It can be as simple as a word processing document that details your equipment. Additionally, documentation can be printouts of configuration files, screen shots of hardware configuration pages, TIDS (technical information documents), HOWTO's, License certificates, etc. NetworkDNA breaks an organization down into locations. Each location is required to be individually documented when it reaches a threshold. Each location that is documented must have a redundant copy of its WikiDNA binder. The IT office or a service provider will keep a complete library of all locations to ensure availability in the event of a disaster and to provide service for the environment as a whole.
WikiDNA is licensed under the GNU General Public License & Free Documentation License. All files will be free to use, modify, and give away. All documents will be copylefted to ensure their freeness is maintained forever. You are not allowed to claim ownership of or sell the files. To clarify, the documentation provided as a value-added service can generate revenue. The original distributed files cannot be password protected, marked read-only, or modified in a way that prevents another from achieving value with them. WikiDNA is a project that will continue to evolve. If you find any element of the methodology or the template files to be questionable, or lacking… please share your thoughts with the community that is dedicated to establishing a world wide documenting practice.
Copyright © Mike Hathaway
This file is part of WikiDNA. WikiDNA is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License or (at your option) any later version. NetworkDNA is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with NetworkDNA; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the file entitled.