I don't know Ansible. I learned about it through this thread. It sounds very interesting. I'll have to experiment with it as I am getting ready to launch a service that will start out with one server but will probably grow quickly to the five to ten range with a few devs involved.
Towards the end of your page you talk about keeping a manual log file. That's exactly the way I've handled this sort of thing for years. I usually call mine "project-log.txt". These files usually have several sections and it looks like this:
Header: Project name, start date and other relevant details
Date entry: What I did on a particular date
Working on now: Before I do anything I make this entry. After an interruption I usually have no clue what I was working on. By making a habit of writing a note to myself about what I am going to be working on immediately I can task-switch to that phone call or unwelcome question and mentally come back to what I was doing quickly.
To Do: Self explanatory.
Questions: If questions come up I log them here so I don't forget.
Ideas: Sometimes as you are working you say things like "hey I should do x". I log them here and go back to what I was doing.
References: Links, etc.
After launch: There are things that might not be critical at all and can be done after launch. I try to only note must-have's in "To Do".
This file lives at a self-named directory: "~/project-log". I do this because I can also save other relevant files there and keep the entire thing under source control.
<Project Name>
<Date>
<Description>
<Notes>
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 01MAR13
<stuff I did on this date> format example:
- Installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
- Installed PHP
- Installed MySQL
- Installed Python
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 02MAR13
<stuff I did on this date>
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 04MAR13
<stuff I did on this date>
--------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKING ON NOW
- Configuring Virtual Hosting
--------------------------------------------------------------------- TO DO
- Configure vim for php development
- Customize bash
- Install imagemagick
- Install php5-imagick
--------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS
- How to automate server bring-up and hardening?
- Firewall or not?
- Disable SSH?
--------------------------------------------------------------------- IDEAS
- Learn Ansible for automated deployment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCES
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS docs
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/
- Ansible
http://ansible.cc/
Nowadays I'm downright spoiled and use org-mode[1] to keep my systems journals. Org files are plain text as well, and org-mode takes care of setting up the tree by date. I can also add a journal entry from anywhere in Emacs with just a couple keystrokes, which makes it incredibly low-friction to use.
Like I said, the most important thing is to TAKE NOTES. Even pen and paper. It's one of Limoncelli's big points in Time Management for System Administrators.
Tooling doesn't really matter, the important part is being able to remember what the heck I did and when I did it. Invaluable for troubleshooting.
Towards the end of your page you talk about keeping a manual log file. That's exactly the way I've handled this sort of thing for years. I usually call mine "project-log.txt". These files usually have several sections and it looks like this:
Header: Project name, start date and other relevant details
Date entry: What I did on a particular date
Working on now: Before I do anything I make this entry. After an interruption I usually have no clue what I was working on. By making a habit of writing a note to myself about what I am going to be working on immediately I can task-switch to that phone call or unwelcome question and mentally come back to what I was doing quickly.
To Do: Self explanatory.
Questions: If questions come up I log them here so I don't forget.
Ideas: Sometimes as you are working you say things like "hey I should do x". I log them here and go back to what I was doing.
References: Links, etc.
After launch: There are things that might not be critical at all and can be done after launch. I try to only note must-have's in "To Do".
This file lives at a self-named directory: "~/project-log". I do this because I can also save other relevant files there and keep the entire thing under source control.