Runbooks

Runbooks are documented procedures that can be executed consistently. They reduce cognitive load, minimize errors, and ensure nothing is forgotten during critical processes.

Why Runbooks?

  • Consistency - Execute the same way every time

  • Delegation - Others can follow without deep knowledge

  • Recovery - Know exactly what to do when things go wrong

  • Audit Trail - Document what was done and when

Categories

Category Purpose Examples

Technical

Infrastructure, deployments, incidents

PKI issuance, backup restore, system migration

Career

Job search, reviews, negotiations

Interview prep, salary negotiation, resignation

Financial

Budgets, taxes, major purchases

Tax filing, investment rebalancing, home buying

Administrative

Government, legal, documentation

Passport renewal, lease signing, insurance claims

Health

Medical, fitness, wellness

Annual checkup prep, fitness assessment

Travel

Trip planning, packing, logistics

International travel prep, moving checklist

Emergency

Crisis response, contingencies

Identity theft response, emergency contacts

Templates

Technical Templates

Life Templates

Runbook Principles

1. Explicit Over Implicit

Bad Good

"Configure the firewall"

"Run: `firewall-cmd --add-port=443/tcp --permanent`"

"Update your resume"

"Open resume.docx, add [Company] under Experience, quantify achievements with metrics"

2. Validation at Every Step

Every action should have a verification:

# Action
command --do-thing

# Verify
command --check-thing
# Expected: "Thing is done"

3. Rollback Is Mandatory

Every runbook must answer: "What if this goes wrong?"

4. Time-Boxed Steps

Estimate duration for each phase. If a step takes longer than expected, that’s a signal to investigate.

5. Single Responsibility

One runbook = one procedure. Chain runbooks for complex workflows.

Naming Convention

Prefix Use Case

RUNBOOK-

Standard operational procedure

INCIDENT-

Incident response / troubleshooting

DEPLOY-

Deployment / release procedure

RECOVERY-

Disaster recovery / restore

CAREER-

Career-related procedure

FINANCIAL-

Financial procedure

ADMIN-

Administrative / paperwork

TRAVEL-

Travel planning

EMERGENCY-

Emergency response

Creating a New Runbook

  1. Choose the appropriate template

  2. Copy to runbooks/ directory with proper prefix

  3. Fill in all sections (don’t skip rollback!)

  4. Add to nav.adoc

  5. Test the procedure at least once

  6. Update based on real-world execution

Existing Runbooks

Technical (in domus-infra-ops)

  • Vault PKI Certificate Issuance (infra-ops)

  • Backup Strategy 3-2-1 (infra-ops)

  • Disaster Recovery (infra-ops)

  • ISE 3.4 Deployment (infra-ops)

Technical (in domus-ise-linux)

  • Linux AD Auth dACL (ise-linux)

  • Vault PKI Quick Reference (ise-linux)

Troubleshooting Guides (domus-captures)