Change Logs Can Minimize Troubleshooting Time
Quite often, things seem to go wrong with our computers and networks with no apparent cause or solution. Many of these cases can be brought about by simple changes a user may have made that at the time seemed inconsequential, but proved to have severe impact.
This is where a change log can come in handy. Basically, a change log is just that – a log of changes that you have made into a system currently in place. Entries in this log can be anything from changing a password to adding new hardware, or anything and everything in between.
Jason Fitzpatrick at Lifehacker explains how taking the time to document your network changes can get you out of a tight spot.
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I used that information to look through the log I keep of our server and network changes and maintenance. It turns out that two months ago, I made a change to the firewall rules, and the problem started the very next day. It was hard to see how this particular change would cause the machine to crash, but it was too coincidental, so I disabled that rule and restarted the firewall service. There have been no warnings, problems or crashes since. I hope you can see the value of good record keeping.”
If you are making changes to your network without keeping a detailed record of what you are doing and when you are doing it, it is going to be extremely difficult to diagnose problems later.
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