Looking for tech documentation solution

3 years ago by plasticus to c/selfhost

So I'm on the lookout for something, but I don't know how to briefly describe it. I want something to help me document various projects at work. It's not uncommon for me to spend a week setting something up, and it works for 2 years and then has a problem -- and I have to re-learn everything about it from the ground up before I can start solving it. For example, I'm setting up a new VMWare server today, and I just know I'm going to forget some of the details on it -- so I want to be able to type out some of the specs and processes, maybe use some tags, a coupel hyperlinks to more info, and be able to search for it a year from now. Does that make sense? Anybody have any suggestions?

johntash 4 points 3 years ago

Bookstack is a really nice wiki/documentation tool.

You may also like wiki.js or even just storing markdown files in a git repo. Lately I've been using Obsidian to manage some notes about servers, but am thinking of going back to bookstack to "publish" docs for others.

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Tiritibambix 2 points 3 years ago

Bookstack is absolutely great. I have all my selfhosting knowledge written there from when I started 2 years ago. It is so great that I've started documenting stuff for other hobbies and for work.

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sboulema 2 points 3 years ago

I like this solution: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/

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jrest18n 1 point 3 years ago

This is a non self hosted answer. Apologize for that. But personally I use one note for this purpose at work. At home I have a lot less so I just keep a txt document.

Sticking around in case someone posts a good solution I haven’t heard of.

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transporteraccident1 1 point 3 years ago

I know this is the self-hosted Community, but I would use GitHub for that use case. I like to keep notes and links in plaintext files, and then store those instruction documents together in a project with any files needed for the project (like config files), that can then ask be easily pulled to the device you're working on. You can also get fancy and store the instructions in batch files that actually carry out the steps for you.

Of course something very similar could be achieved with a self-hosted git instance, but I like using GitHub because I like having the web interface and Pages option when those are relevant.

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AccountForStuff 1 point 3 years ago

I personally use Bookstack for this and love it

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plasticus 1 point 3 years ago

I like that I could quickly find a docker for this. Might try it!

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TheFrenchGhosty 1 point 3 years ago

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