This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
The template drafts headings: purpose, host, steps, check, rollback. It does not perform the change. A step you cannot say aloud does not belong in the book.
One change, on hosts you administer. The rollback is a command or a file you already know, not a hope. Do not perform the change during the reading.
192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the change and the host.
- Write the steps.
- Write the rollback.
- Do not perform the change.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Writing Runbooks goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- No rollback.
- A step you cannot say.
- The change performed during the reading.
- A host you do not administer.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Writing Runbooks: The rollback is written. The steps can be read aloud. Nothing was performed. And the host is yours.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The change is written. The host is written. The rollback is written. Nothing was performed. And the host is yours. If one of those fails, stop.
# One change.
# The rollback is written.
# Do not perform it during the reading.Before you leave the host
Writing Runbooks ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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