Template for a Data Centre Operations Manual

Introduction.........................................................7
Audience.............................................................8
Scope of Responsibilities of Data Centre Team 
    ...............................and of this Operations Manual.....9
    Scope - Data Centre Infrastructure...............................9
    Scope - Network and Communication Infrastructure................10
    Scope – Servers and Applications................................11
    Out of Scope....................................................13
Service Levels......................................................14
    Service Level Measurement and Service Level Reporting...........14
    Service Level Management........................................16
    Service Levels to be met by external Service Providers..........16
    Service Levels the Data Centre has to provide 
                    to internal Customers (Business Departments)....17
IT Infrastructure Resources.........................................18
    HVAC – Heating, Ventilation, Air conditioning 
                  (Cooling, Humidification, De-humidification)......18
        Operations Parameter - Data Centre Room.....................18
        Required Spare Parts available on-site......................19
        Regular Duties and Responsibilities.........................19
        Instructions for Activities.................................19
    External Water Supply for HVAC..................................20
    UPS – Uninterrupted Power Supply................................21
          Required Spare Parts available on-site....................21
    Racks...........................................................23
      Regular Duties and Responsibilities...........................23
      Required Spare Parts available on-site........................24
Internal Network and Communication Infrastructure...................25
    Core Switches...................................................25
    Cabling.........................................................25
External Network and Communications Services........................26
    Dedicated Leased Lines..........................................27
    VSAT link.......................................................29
    Internet Connectivity...........................................31
Servers and Applications............................................34
    Installing Servers..............................................34
        Rack-Mounting of Servers and Cabling........................34
        Installation of Operating System............................34
        Installation of Monitoring Agents and connection 
                                          to Monitoring System......34
        Installation of Agents for Backup-System 
                                  and configuring Backup............34
Regular Manual Checks and / or Reactions to Warnings and Alarms 
                           raised by Monitoring System..............35
Infrastructure Applications.........................................38
    Domain Name Servers (DNS).......................................38
    Central Authentication Server...................................40
IT-related Processes................................................41
    Usual operations................................................41
    Emergency Reboot of (hanging) Servers...........................41
    Scheduled Regular Reboot of Serves..............................41
    Managing Spare Parts / Reserve Parts for Servers................42
    Replacing faulty parts / parts with limited life time in Servers42
    Restore Tests of Servers........................................42
Processing access Requests to Data Centre...........................43
Processing access Requests to locked cages / locked racks...........43
Capacity Management for Data Centre Resources.......................43
Project triggered processes.........................................44
    Adding new Hardware to the Data Centre..........................44
Decommissioning of Hardware and other Equipment.....................45
Software Life-Cycle Management of Data Centre related software......47
Management of Support Contracts.....................................49
Quarterly or Yearly recurring processes.............................50
Data Centre Capacity Planning.......................................50
Planning other activities...........................................50
    DR – Tests......................................................50
    Fail-over Test from public Power Supply to UPS..................50
Physical Inventory..................................................51
On-Demand Processes.................................................52
Emergency Processes.................................................54
External Service Catalogue (might be a separate document) 
      available to project- and application teams)..................56

Resources...........................................................66
    Human Resources – Roles and Responsibilities....................66
    Shift / Rota Planning...........................................66
    Technical Training and Staff Certifications.....................66

Appendices..........................................................76
Appendix A: Glossary................................................76
Appendix B: Internal Document References............................77
Appendix C: External References.....................................78
Appendix D – Data Centre Requirements...............................79
Appendix E – List of Hardware Models and Software Versions supported 
                                 by the Data Centre.................81
Appendix F – Request Forms..........................................82
Appendix G – Checklist – Templates..................................83
   Server Installation (Hardware, Operating System) Checklist.......83