I provide part-time IT support for a small nonprofit and am preparing for the possibility of moving on. Documentation has often been pushed aside by more urgent work, but I want to leave behind a useful high-level overview for whoever takes over.
The environment includes a recently migrated Proxmox virtualization platform, Active Directory and ADFS integrated with Microsoft 365, VLANs, wireless infrastructure, file shares, backups, antivirus servers, VoIP, and other supporting services. I've already created an inventory of devices and services, and I'm working on a network diagram and a document describing each server and its role.
I'm debating whether to use a Word or LibreOffice document, a wiki, Markdown files, or another documentation platform. Since the documentation would describe the organization's infrastructure, I'm hesitant to host it publicly or online without strong access controls. My main goal is to provide enough context that a competent administrator can understand what exists and investigate the details without spending an unreasonable amount of time documenting every low-level procedure.
What tools and organizational approach have worked well for documenting environments like this?
5 Answers
Visual documentation is extremely valuable. Use a network diagram or mind map to show systems, connections, VLANs, dependencies, and backup destinations, then number the diagram elements and reference those numbers in the written notes. People can usually understand a good diagram much faster than several pages of prose.
A practical handover package could be a high-level document, an inventory spreadsheet, and a network diagram. The spreadsheet can cover hostnames, FQDNs, IP addresses, VLANs, hardware, and services, while the document explains what each major system does and how the pieces fit together. Keep credentials in a password manager rather than putting them in the documentation, and make sure the documentation itself is protected because it maps the entire environment.
If the organization already pays for Microsoft 365, OneNote, SharePoint, or Loop may be easier for staff to maintain than introducing a separate platform. If you want something more structured, self-hosted or private knowledge bases such as Outline, BookStack, Docmost, or Obsidian are options. Whatever you choose, keep it access-controlled and backed up rather than exposing infrastructure details publicly.
Markdown with Mermaid diagrams is a solid long-term option: it stays readable as plain text, can be version-controlled, and can be rendered into a polished documentation site or PDF. But a simple local office document is still better than an unfinished wiki. For a one-time transition, prioritize accuracy, ownership information, recovery procedures, dependencies, and where the credentials and backups are stored.
That’s where I’m landing. Given the limited time available, I’m going to finish a LibreOffice document with the inventory and diagrams rather than spend the remaining time building a documentation platform. A good high-level handover is more useful than an elaborate system that never gets completed.
Don’t overthink the platform at first—get the information written down. Plain-text or Markdown files stored in a private Git repository work well because they’re easy to search, track, back up, and convert into HTML or PDF later. Diagrams can be stored alongside the notes. The important thing is having accurate content, not choosing the perfect documentation system.
That’s close to what I’m building: a high-level network diagram, an inventory of devices and VLANs, and a document describing the main service systems. I’m intentionally keeping it focused on what exists and what each component does instead of trying to document every troubleshooting detail.