The Barking Seal

End-of-year IT checklist

28Dec
Author: trent Categories: IT Management, Infrastructure, Security Comments: 3
We’re finally down to the last few days of 2008. If you’re like most places I know, the rest of the organization has taken this week off as vacation, leaving the die-hard IT guys behind to mind the fort. On the holiday party circuit, I’m continually surprised at the reaction when I tell folks I’m on-call over the holidays. Apparently, many of them have jobs where time stands still when they’re out-of-the-office on break.

Fortunately (!?), there’s plenty for us IT guys to do this week. Here’s a quick checklist that I use to make sure things don’t get missed/forgotten:
- Update copyright dates. If your website or other publishing mechanism doesn’t do this automatically, it’s time to flip them to 2009. Long-time friend and respected sage Brad Feld usually reminds folks about this (and the need to make this automatic), but this year we should all beat him, and his followers, to the punch.
- Company holidays. If your security system unlocks the front door at the start of the business day, or your phoneswitch/ACD routes calls differently if you’re closed, now’s the time to program them with the dates for company holidays in the coming year.
- Backups. A great end-of-year tradition is to validate that the data you care about is really being backed up, somehow. Crack open a fresh carton of eggnog and perform some test restores to validate that you not only can read the backup media, but that it contains what you were expecting. You could/should do this more than once a year, but at least do it now.
- Archive tapes. Along those lines, what a great opportunity to make that annual off-site backup tape set and send it to the vault. Even if you have super-duper fantasmogoric quadruply-redundant RAID arrays, humor me and write important data to some offline media at least once a year. You’ll thank me someday — I promise.
- Preventative Maintenance. Now’s a great time to change those air filters in the data center, inspect and replace aging UPS batteries (you certainly should replace them every 5 years; most manufacturers recommend every 3), if you have standby power make sure you have adequate fuel onsite (those of us in northern states hopefully have already filled diesel tanks with “winter mix” or treated with an additive to prevent fuel problems in the bitter cold of January/February).
- System Status Monitoring. Are all the lights on equipment in the data center “green” where they should be, or has a drive in a RAID array failed but no one noticed? If you use an automated monitoring platform like nagios, take time verify that it’s monitoring everything you care about.
- Passwords. You change all of your administrative passwords at least once a year, and then store them in a (physical or electronic) vault somewhere, don’t you? If not, that should be at the top of your new year’s resolutions list!
- Domains. Verify the expiration dates of your domain(s) and, if necessary renew them or plan renewal actions on the calendar.
- SSL Certificates. Verify the expiration dates of your ssl certificates and, if necessary renew them or plan renewal actions on the calendar.
- License renewals. Verify the expiration dates of essential software that is licensed on a time basis, if necessary renew them or plan renewal actions on the calendar.
- Periodic Security Assessment. Every organization should have at least an annual information security assessment, and either quarterly or monthly external vulnerability scans. Even if you don’t plan to do them now, make sure they’re on the calendar for 2009.
- Log books. Do you keep old-style paper maintenance logs in your data center, IDF’s, or elsewhere? Put out a fresh set and scan the old ones as PDFs for archival.
- Website SEO. Use Google webmaster tools to verify the current state of your organization’s website (as viewed by Google). Also a good time to review Google adwords or other online advertising.
- Update stereotypical cartoon on your office door or cube entrance. Here’s a good one.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to 2009 – I’m convinced it’s going to be a lot of fun. Happy New Year!
Tags: checklists