Four steps to a successful data center migration

"Editor's note" even seemingly simple data center migrations can affect business operations, jeopardizing key business functions and business relationships. However, the company can successfully migrate the data center. Greenhousedata's data center and Planning Director Art Salazar recently wrote about the four steps to do a good job of data center migration, with a lot of people concerned and learning.

The following is the translation:

With corporate mergers and acquisitions, internal deployment facilities are aging, but the consolidation tasks have been explained, and data center equipment needs to be migrated to new facilities.

Whether you want to put two facilities in one place, or you want to choose the best equipment for your company's unified data center, or move it equipment and workloads to another place, it's a time-consuming effort, and a potentially expensive job. Here, we discuss the best way to help plan for data center migrations.

Step one: Determine what needs to be migrated

You may have purchased new equipment and wanted to move some of the items to a new location. The time to replace the old equipment with the old is crucial. Because device migration is risky, if something is damaged on the way, it can cause the system to fail at the new location. Foreign equipment or service contracts during migration can make the migration process smoother.

Looking back at your contract with a hard software provider, is there any need to terminate? Can they move around with you? There may be a location or compatibility constraint. Because you're breaking everything up and reloading it, you can finally get rid of a tough supplier, try a new service, or achieve a better deal.

Your device may also need to adapt to new space. is time to implement channel containment or database system rules? Can you design a higher-density environment? The migration process allows you to explore efficiency issues and to see what is useful in your tool design and what is not.

Once you know which devices need to be moved, you need to decide whether to move all the devices at once or transfer them in batches. The latter ensures that some of the data in the data center is run in a new location and the transmission system is started. If you want to move all the equipment at once, foreign equipment or service contracts can effectively avoid downtime. Of course, if your organization doesn't care about downtime, it's not a problem.

Determine if you have enough resources to do the data center migration yourself, or if you need related service assistance. This service is typically provided by professional IT companies, who specialize in data center work, or simply because they migrate data centers on their own, so you just have to make sure they have enough experience with it equipment.

Step Two: View the environment and list the equipment

Review the system logs and inventory files before you pack all the devices. Determine if all the things are in, and record all new equipment. Check usage to see ongoing workloads, scheduled backups, and current software and applications. If you have a service contract, you need to pay more attention: for example, disaster recovery needs to point to a new location. Some items may require special permission to run simultaneously or temporarily while you are switching to a new facility.

The annotation needs to be retained and the device is running. If a device needs to be moved, look for the warranty information and serial number to ensure that the migration process does not cause the warranty to expire.

The next step is to establish or adjust a disaster recovery or backup. It is best to have a physical backup and a cloud backup. Testing disaster recovery is an important part of preparing for a real migration.

Step three: Assemble the personnel and complete the migration.

Plan the relocation date to avoid interfering with the company's normal business during the heavy business period, such as upcoming product launches or internal projects. Real migration activities can be completed at the end of the day. Of course, you need to make sure that the movers have access to all the necessary buildings.

Divide people into leaders, porters, and technical teams ready to monitor and migrate systems. Make a comprehensive plan for handling the day, including handling methods, handling items, backup plans, installation and testing programs. Think about the risks that each step might involve and minimize the impact of the migration on your business.

Orderly packaging and sorting, labeling all information: Cable boxes need to indicate the type and length of cable, the server should indicate what modules they need and/or space to simplify the reinstallation. It is recommended that you move the data center hierarchically, or you can move non-critical systems in other ways, such as first.

Seriously deal with old equipment and supplies. Recycle or sell electronic products that are still useful if you can. Ensure that all devices do not have any data residue. Emptying technology or clearing memory-level processing may not be sufficient to completely erase data, and storing degaussing or physical damage is sometimes necessary. Dangerous equipment such as batteries needs to be handled properly.

Security is critical in this process. Understand the staff, track the equipment, and pay attention to the safety log. It's easy to sneak out of your old horizons at this time, because it's not about moving things open the door, it's the firewall shutting down. Take away or destroy security keys, files, and access systems as needed.

Step fourth: Documenting and testing

After installing everything, start testing. Check the equipment in the new facility against the inventory list to avoid any dislocation. Check the list of systems and applications to make sure they are either running properly or replacing them in place.

To complete the project audit review for future documentation preparation, evaluate the migration success. Does the migration follow the schedule? Conformance to design specifications? Ask the team's ideas and ask the C-level leadership and other department heads whether the data center has met their needs after the migration.

There are many things to keep track of during a data center migration. These steps outline the ways, things, locations, times, and causes of mobile devices and systems. Perhaps the most important part of the migration process is to record the entire process, follow the perfect plan, and finalize the review. This helps you to plan the process while leaving a written record in order to identify errors in the process and measure the ultimate success.

Original link: 4 tournaments to a successful Data Center migration (translation/Li Yu li Zebian/Chang)