What is a Runbook?
According to Wikipedia a Runbook is:
a routine compilation of the procedures and operations being made by the administrator or operator of the system. Typically, it will contain the procedures to begin, stop and supervise the system. Also it can contain descriptions for special request handling, and handling of contingencies. An effective Runbook will allow other operators, with prerequisite expertise, to effectively manage and troubleshoot a system. Runbooks are typically created by top tier managed service providers and include procedures for every anticipated scenario from starting a system to troubleshooting an outage. Step-by-step decision trees are generally used to determine the effective course of action (e.g., if application is not responding verify DNS resolution, if DNS resolution is OK then verify service is active, if service active then check logs, if log error Y then etc.) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runbook, October 17, 2007 |
Taken at the words of this statement, the runbook should describe everything one needs for the proper administration and operation of the system. The SQLClue Runbook then is not the documentation for some part of the routine database work that occurs, but rather, the documentation for all routine database work.
As the information necessary for the day to day activities becomes shared and visible, highly skilled people are freed to spend time on more interesting and ever urgent problems like performance, changes, scalability, and availability rather than answering repetitive questions and providing direct supervision to others. The real question becomes: Who has time to NOT use a runbook? It's a prescription for chaos to have the best and brightest people in any IT or software development shop focused on anything less than the most difficult and demanding needs. And it's equally ineffective to have anyone other than the people most experienced in how the day to day activities support the organization writing the Runbook. It's a difficult problem to solve.
Solving Difficult Problems
The concept of a runbook is at least as old as the computing industry. Possibly as old as writing itself, depending upon where you choose to draw the somewhat arbitrary defining moment of the computing industry. For our purposes, and simply stated, the DBA runbook is the documentation of the DBA's work. Noted BI author/trainer/guru Carl Rabeler pointed Bill to a DBA runbook for SQL Server 2000 white paper he authored on Microsoft's TechNet website. Carl's paper provides an excellent general overview of the procedures and practices that ought to be included a runbook. As one reads the exhaustive listings, it becomes evident that the details to be included in the runbook are quite specific to the environment yet the principles remain generally applicable across environments and through time. Even as the details will change over time.
From the managerial perspective the runbook is a valuable aid in business continuity. From the operations perspective the greatest value of any runbook is to place the information needed to support the database close at hand at all times to whoever is on duty. From the development perspective the primary benefit of the runbook is to expose the database systems requirements while building new and improved application components. From the DBA perspective the runbook provides business continuity assurance to management, procedural support to operations, guidelines to development and a common repository of this information to other DBAs without the need to interrupt whatever task is at hand to repeat well established information. Holistically then, from the organizational perspective, the runbook is a fundamental strategic monitoring tool.
The SQLClue Runbook serves the holistic needs of the organization in at least three ways:
The SQLClue Runbook provides a common central reference for all management, operations, development and administrations staff to quickly recover the knowledge and information necessary to do their work.
The SQLClue Runbook provides a convenient and easy yet secure console interface for designated contributors to add and update the body of knowledge and information. A
The SQLClue Runbook opens the feedback loop to everyone thus assuring transparency to the intentions, efforts and understanding of each individual to the team and vice-versa.
The SQLClue Runbook provides views for management to assess the state of business continuity efforts and to measure individuals, even when the specialized skills and productivity of the individuals exceed the technical knowledge of the manager.
Whether through reassignment, termination, or temporary circumstance such as vacation or a good night's sleep; when workers are not immediately available the SQLClue Runbook assures that others have adequate information for success. The more thoughtful, complete, and thorough the SQLClue Runbook library of information, the more likely it is to increase the ultimate success of the organization.
The SQLClue Runbook is intended to serve as the fundamental planning tool for an effective team strategy. In monitoring, one ubiquitous objective is to identify problems before they become failures. The SQLClue Runbook can lead interested and involved team members to information and details to include captured data points and thresholds over which concern requires action and, when used in the context the SQLClue Repository data store, a complete history of database configuration change. The Runbook serves as a central reference for the capture and replay of moving proactively and objectively through a problem resolution escalation. Information acquired during each escalation is easily captured to continually improve process with only a very small additional time required from the involved and the interested individuals.
To be sure, the lessons of the Runbook are always being learned and sometimes the classroom may be ablaze. However, with the knowledge-based prescriptions possible from the evolving Runbook, the catastrophes will be less frequent and in most cases less severe and of shorter duration. Without the Runbook, crisis management becomes anecdotal and ad-libbed. Only the uncertainty of the outcome is assured. The SQLClue Runbook allows the organization to begin to move toward structure and success with an amazingly small upfront effort to get things started.
The SQLClue Runbook is designed to be used in the security zone that envelopes the host SQL Server. Only individuals within the organization that have sufficient Network access in this zone and have been added to the appropriate SQLClue Runbook database role will be able to add content and peer review the Runbook data store. By default only the document owner and Runbook administrators can access or open a document through the Runbook Interface. All file system security remains in full effect. Runbook Topic and Document ownership are added by SQLClue. Ownership enforcement can be turned on or off at any time.
The SQLClue Runbook is organized into Topics from user defined Categories. Each topic can have up to 2GB of text and can be associated with an unlimited number of external documents. Document associations can be via network share and local file system paths. Document files are loaded as binary images. Automation is used to keep the document image stored in database synchronized with the external document. The database file image can be viewed in the documents associated application. Document types that have Microsoft's Search technology IFilters available on the SQLClue host are Full-Text indexed. Subsequent queries can use the using the CONTAINS and FREETEXT predicates as well as the CONTAINSTABLE and FREETEXTTABLE functions resulting in very powerful query capabilities. Numerous features and reports within the SQLClue Runbook component exploit this search capability. Since any Report Server can be connected to the SQLClue Runbook data store, custom searching and target audience security are fully configurable at any time.
The preconfigured Category labels are directed toward a Runbook to support the SQL Servers in the installed environment. By replacing the included Categories with internally relevant Categories, any organizational team can use the SQLClue Runbook approach to document any operational or process critical scenario.
The SQLClue Runbook provides a method for the shop that does not have a runbook at this time to capture information about the events and activities that must be documented as they happen. An important best practice for the SQLClue Runbook is the dedication of as little as 2-3 minutes of personal time each day to add, revise, and review Runbook entries that are relevant to the activities of that day. Dedication to this approach will grow and evolve the Runbook’s body of knowledge over time. The results are quick and dramatic provided that participation is mandated by the organization. This requires that everyone that benefits from the SQLClue Runbook is committed to its success. It also means that the organization has identified real consequences for those not adequately committed.
Shops that have a different runbook like resource in place can use the SQLClue Runbook as a queue to capture necessary information that can then be integrated into other systems as time is availalble. Unlike tools where data entry can be time consuming and distracting; adding notes to a SQLClue Topic is as easy as
1. open the Runbook data store,
2. locate the Topic,
3. add the Note.
This page was last modified on Tuesday, February 02, 2010 12:36:05 PM