Runbook Generator

Expert in creating comprehensive, standardized runbooks for operational procedures, incident response, and system maintenance tasks.

Runbook Structure

runbook_template: metadata: title: "Runbook title" version: "1.0" last_updated: "2024-01-15" owner: "Team/Person" reviewers: ["Name 1", "Name 2"]

overview: purpose: "What this runbook accomplishes" scope: "Systems/services affected" audience: "Who should use this"

prerequisites: access: - "AWS Console access" - "SSH key for production servers" - "Database credentials" tools: - "kubectl configured" - "AWS CLI installed" - "jq for JSON parsing" knowledge: - "Basic Kubernetes concepts" - "Understanding of service architecture"

execution: estimated_time: "15-30 minutes" risk_level: "Medium" requires_change_ticket: true requires_approval: true can_be_automated: true

steps: [] # Detailed steps below

verification: [] # How to confirm success

rollback: [] # How to undo changes

troubleshooting: [] # Common issues

contacts: primary_oncall: "PagerDuty" escalation: "Engineering Manager" subject_experts: ["DBA Team", "Platform Team"]

Standard Runbook Template

[Runbook Title]

Version: 1.0 Last Updated: YYYY-MM-DD Owner: Team Name Risk Level: Low | Medium | High | Critical

Overview

Purpose

Brief description of what this runbook accomplishes.

When to Use

• Trigger condition 1
• Trigger condition 2
• Alert: "Alert Name" fires

Scope

Systems and services affected:

• Service A
• Database B
• External dependency C

Prerequisites

Required Access

• Production AWS Console
• Kubernetes cluster access
• Database read/write permissions

Required Tools

# Verify kubectl
kubectl version --client

# Verify AWS CLI
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Verify database connectivity
psql -h $DB_HOST -U $DB_USER -c "SELECT 1"

Required Knowledge

- Kubernetes pod management

- Service architecture overview

- Incident response process

Pre-Execution Checklist

-  Change ticket created: CHG-XXXXX

-  Approval obtained from: [Name]

-  Backup verified (if applicable)

-  Stakeholders notified

-  Maintenance window scheduled (if applicable)

Execution Steps

Step 1: [Action Name]

Purpose: Why this step is necessary

Command:

kubectl get pods -n production -l app=myservice

Expected Output:

NAME                        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myservice-abc123-xyz        1/1     Running   0          2d
myservice-def456-uvw        1/1     Running   0          2d

Verification: Confirm all pods show STATUS=Running

If unexpected: See Troubleshooting section

Step 2: [Next Action]

Purpose: Description

Command:

# Command with explanation
kubectl scale deployment myservice --replicas=3 -n production

Expected Output:

deployment.apps/myservice scaled

Verification:

# Verify new replicas are running
kubectl get pods -n production -l app=myservice -w

Wait for: All 3 pods to show Running status (typically 2-5 minutes)

Post-Execution Verification

Verify Service Health

# Check deployment status
kubectl rollout status deployment/myservice -n production

# Check service endpoints
kubectl get endpoints myservice -n production

# Verify application health
curl -s https://api.example.com/health | jq .

Expected:

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "version": "1.2.3",
  "uptime": "2h30m"
}

Verify Metrics

-  Error rate returned to normal (<0.1%)

-  Latency within SLA (<200ms p99)

-  No new alerts firing

Rollback Procedure

When to Rollback

- Error rate exceeds 1%

- Latency exceeds 500ms p99

- Critical functionality broken

Rollback Steps

# Rollback to previous deployment
kubectl rollout undo deployment/myservice -n production

# Verify rollback
kubectl rollout status deployment/myservice -n production

# Confirm previous version
kubectl get deployment myservice -n production -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}'

Troubleshooting

Symptom
Likely Cause
Resolution

Pods stuck in Pending
Resource constraints
Check node capacity: kubectl describe nodes

CrashLoopBackOff
Application error
Check logs: kubectl logs -f <pod>

ImagePullBackOff
Registry auth issue
Verify secret: kubectl get secret regcred

Connection refused
Service not ready
Wait for readiness probe, check endpoints

Common Issues

Issue: Deployment times out

# Check pod events
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n production

# Check resource limits
kubectl top pods -n production

Issue: Database connection failures

# Verify database connectivity
kubectl exec -it <pod> -n production -- psql -h $DB_HOST -c "SELECT 1"

# Check connection pool
kubectl logs <pod> -n production | grep -i "connection"

Emergency Contacts

Role
Contact
When to Engage

On-call Engineer
PagerDuty
Any issue

Database Team
#dba-oncall
Database issues

Platform Team
#platform-oncall
Infrastructure issues

Engineering Manager
[Name]
Escalation

Change Log

Version
Date
Author
Changes

1.0
2024-01-15
Author
Initial version

Related Documentation

- Service Architecture

- Incident Response Process

- Monitoring Dashboard

## Runbook Types

### Incident Response Runbook

```yaml
incident_runbook:
  sections:
    detection:
      alert_name: "High Error Rate - Payment Service"
      threshold: "Error rate > 5% for 5 minutes"
      severity: "P1"

    immediate_actions:
      - step: "Acknowledge alert"
        command: "In PagerDuty, acknowledge incident"
        time: "< 5 min"

      - step: "Assess impact"
        command: |
          # Check error rate
          curl -s "https://metrics.example.com/api/v1/query?query=rate(http_errors[5m])"
        time: "< 2 min"

      - step: "Notify stakeholders"
        action: "Post in #incident-channel"
        template: |
          🚨 INCIDENT: Payment Service High Errors
          Severity: P1
          Status: Investigating
          Impact: Payment processing affected
          IC: @oncall

    investigation:
      - "Check recent deployments"
      - "Review error logs"
      - "Check dependent services"
      - "Review infrastructure metrics"

    mitigation:
      options:
        - name: "Rollback deployment"
          when: "Error started after deploy"
          command: "kubectl rollout undo deployment/payment -n prod"

        - name: "Scale up"
          when: "Load-related errors"
          command: "kubectl scale deployment/payment --replicas=10 -n prod"

        - name: "Enable circuit breaker"
          when: "Downstream dependency failing"
          command: "Toggle feature flag: payment.circuit_breaker=true"

    resolution:
      checklist:
        - "[ ] Error rate < 0.1%"
        - "[ ] No P1 alerts"
        - "[ ] Stakeholders notified"
        - "[ ] Incident documented"

Deployment Runbook

deployment_runbook:
  pre_deployment:
    checklist:
      - "[ ] Code review approved"
      - "[ ] CI/CD pipeline passed"
      - "[ ] Staging tested"
      - "[ ] Change ticket approved"
      - "[ ] Rollback plan documented"

    verification:
      - step: "Verify staging health"
        command: |
          curl -s https://staging.example.com/health

      - step: "Check deployment queue"
        command: |
          kubectl get pods -n staging -l app=myservice

  deployment:
    - step: "Apply deployment"
      command: |
        kubectl apply -f k8s/production/deployment.yaml

    - step: "Monitor rollout"
      command: |
        kubectl rollout status deployment/myservice -n production --timeout=10m

    - step: "Verify new version"
      command: |
        kubectl get deployment myservice -n production \
          -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}'

  post_deployment:
    - step: "Smoke test"
      command: |
        ./scripts/smoke-test.sh production

    - step: "Monitor metrics"
      duration: "15 minutes"
      watch:
        - "Error rate"
        - "Latency p99"
        - "Request rate"

    - step: "Update ticket"
      action: "Mark CHG ticket as completed"

Maintenance Runbook

maintenance_runbook:
  log_rotation:
    schedule: "Weekly, Sunday 02:00 UTC"

    steps:
      - step: "Connect to server"
        command: |
          ssh admin@logs.example.com

      - step: "Rotate logs"
        command: |
          sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/application

      - step: "Verify rotation"
        command: |
          ls -la /var/log/application/
          # Should see rotated files with date suffix

      - step: "Clean old logs"
        command: |
          # Remove logs older than 30 days
          find /var/log/application/ -name "*.log.*" -mtime +30 -delete

      - step: "Verify disk space"
        command: |
          df -h /var/log
          # Should show > 20% free

  database_maintenance:
    schedule: "Monthly, first Sunday 03:00 UTC"

    steps:
      - step: "Check table sizes"
        command: |
          psql -c "
            SELECT tablename,
                   pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(tablename::text))
            FROM pg_tables
            WHERE schemaname = 'public'
            ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(tablename::text) DESC
            LIMIT 10;
          "

      - step: "Run VACUUM ANALYZE"
        command: |
          psql -c "VACUUM ANALYZE;"

      - step: "Reindex if needed"
        command: |
          psql -c "REINDEX DATABASE mydb;"

Writing Guidelines

principles:
  clarity:
    - "Use active voice"
    - "Be explicit, never assume"
    - "One action per step"

  completeness:
    - "Include all commands"
    - "Show expected output"
    - "Document verification"

  safety:
    - "Test in non-prod first"
    - "Include rollback steps"
    - "Document risks"

formatting:
  commands:
    - "Use code blocks with language"
    - "Include full paths"
    - "Add comments for complex commands"

  steps:
    - "Number sequentially"
    - "Include purpose"
    - "Show expected result"
    - "Note time estimate"

  variables:
    format: "$VARIABLE_NAME or <placeholder>"
    document: "List all variables at start"

Quality Checklist

validation:
  structure:
    - "[ ] Clear title and metadata"
    - "[ ] Prerequisites listed"
    - "[ ] Steps numbered and clear"
    - "[ ] Expected outputs included"
    - "[ ] Verification steps present"
    - "[ ] Rollback documented"
    - "[ ] Troubleshooting section"
    - "[ ] Contacts listed"

  testing:
    - "[ ] All commands tested"
    - "[ ] Outputs verified"
    - "[ ] Rollback tested"
    - "[ ] Time estimates accurate"

  maintenance:
    - "[ ] Version number updated"
    - "[ ] Change log maintained"
    - "[ ] Quarterly review scheduled"
    - "[ ] Owner assigned"

Лучшие практики

- Test everything — каждая команда должна быть проверена

- Show expected output — пользователь должен знать что увидит

- Include rollback — всегда план отката

- Keep updated — ревью каждый квартал

- Version control — runbooks в git

- Automate when possible — автоматизируй повторяющиеся процедуры