Infrastructure Inventory and Change Management
July 16, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
Reliable operation begins with a current inventory and a controlled change process. Registration, authoritative DNS, website hosting, email, and monitoring may be owned by different systems.
Control Areas
Record where each responsibility is managed:
- Registration account for domain status, renewal, and delegated nameservers
- External authoritative DNS account for zone records
- Server or hosting account for the website
- Certificate automation on the server or hosting system
- Email system for mailboxes and sending configuration
- Monitoring system for public checks and alerts
Account interfaces and service capabilities can change. Keep the inventory based on current observed state rather than old screenshots.
Domain Inventory
Maintain a private inventory with:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Domain | Exact registered name |
| Project owner | Person responsible for content and renewal |
| Account owner | Person or organization controlling registration |
| Authoritative DNS | Nameserver hostnames and DNS account owner |
| Web host | Server or deployment owner |
| Renewal date | Calendar deadline and reminder dates |
| Certificate | Hostnames and renewal method |
| Email use | Whether the domain sends or receives mail |
| Recovery contact | Internal escalation contact |
Do not place passwords, session cookies, API secrets, or private certificate keys in the inventory.
Before Any Change
- Check registration notices and domain status.
- Export or record existing DNS records.
- Record current nameservers and TTL values.
- Identify the owner of every affected service.
- Define a rollback value and decision point.
After Any Change
Verify:
dig NS example.dpdns.org
dig A example.dpdns.org
curl -I https://example.dpdns.org
Add mail and application-specific checks when those services are affected.
Separate Roles Where Practical
For an organization, avoid making one personal account the undocumented owner of registration, DNS, hosting, certificates, and email. Record access ownership and recovery procedures so the domain survives staff changes and device loss.
Continue to Renewal and Expiration.