Operations Manual Template for

This Template is for a data centre including data centre infrastructure. If you are looking for an Operations Manual for a single IT System / IT Application, then we recommend to check our Template for an IT Systems Operations Manual.

Dependent on the internal organization structure the Data Centre can provide a very limited or very extensive range of services in the areas of

• Data Centre Infrastructure, e.g. Heating, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning (HVAC), uninterrupted power supply (UPS), elevated floor, Racks
• Network Infrastructure, e.g. cabling, core switches, ...
• Infrastructure Applications, e.g. Domain Name Servers (DNS), Directory Servers (LDAP), email- and messaging servers, Backup- and Monitoring systems

List of potential Services:

• Providing an environment with reliable conditions for temperature, humidity
• housing of servers
• hosting of servers and storage systems including operating-system support and basic database administration
• backup and restore services
• infrastructure services as local area network and external communications (except conventional telephone service (POT))
• infrastructure applications like email-services including spam filters, virus protection, fax servers, Domain Name Services (DNS), LDAP- and other directory services

This template for an Data Centre Operations Manual deals with

• Data Centre Infra Structure Components as e.g.
• HVAC - Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning
• UPS - Uninterrupted Power Supply
• Server Management
• Commissioning and decommissioning of hardware
• Rack mounting, cabling, Operating System installation
• Basic Server and Operating System Monitoring
• Infrastructure Applications like DNS
• Spare Parts Management

and provides following benefits:

1. It saves time.
2. It avoids that important items are omitted.
3. It provides checklists for daily and non-regularily duties.

The resulting Operating Manual / Runbook is an an essential source of information to support

• daily operations by unambiguous description of all active and proactive tasks to keep the data centre infrastructure running and prevent unplanned outages and by providing all information required
• special operations e.g. outage planning and all special tasks from shut-down to startup
• troubleshooting by ensuring that all required information is immediately available. Especially in case of problems this document should contain all information required by internal staff or especially by external experts to analyse the problem
• all other active and proactive tasks required to keep the data centre running, preventing unplanned outages (e.g. because of an expired license key or exceeding the license limit) and ensuring that required (capacity) extensions are identified early and planned.