The data center migration may pose a major challenge. The process turns out to be a major challenge that is spread over various systems involving multiple pieces of high-value equipment. Consideration for cooling systems or emergency power adds extra layers of complexity to the building shutdown and migration procedures. Every system has a separate set of guidelines and requires specific skills, which the existing staff may not possess. Below is a data center migration checklist and there are a few priority areas.
Investment of resources and time in the formulation of a plan
As part of the data center migration checklist, a migration project plan is indispensable. You need to invest your time and resources in the formulation of a plan.
- A dedicated project owner or manager
- Pre-requisites for hardware, environment, software, and task
- Key team players both at an internal and external level
- Data center migration best practices include outlining key dates for every stage.
- A backup plan
For forecasting labour, you need to estimate the number of individuals along with the hours necessary to complete the task. You need to be specific about task requirements at each and every stage of the project. There may arise a need to avail oneself of the services of third-party resources when it comes to background or security checks.
Careful planning along with flawless execution
The data center migration best practices are task-specific, so it is better that you be as specific as possible. You may require a combination of templates, tracking sheets, or hard copies of documents. When you are preparing a data center migration checklist, you need to consider the following:
- Label cabling for target and existing data centres.
- Back-ups completed
- Application administrators, along with DBAs, disable services.
- Application administrators and DBAs check services.
- A network administrator checks switch configuration, cabling, and firewall connectivity.
- Shut down and power off all data center equipment.
- OS administrator establishes a remote connection to the console cable to reconfigure network devices for the service.
- OS administrators check the health of network, OS, and storage connectivity.
- The QA team tests all the applications and certifies the data center environment.
The back-ups should be tested well ahead of time to minimise risk and downtime.
- Be mindful of potential migration risks, and practise how you’ll recover data in the new data centre if something goes wrong..
- Be ready with licence keys and the media for installing backup server and customer software if the need arises
- Before the relocation date, make sure the built-up servers and backup are prepared to go in the new data center.
Key questions are to be asked related to time and events.
- Are all the databases shutting down?
- Are all the applications shut down?
- Test shut down and then start up
Cross check everything as the date approaches
- The elevators, doors (stairless), loading area, and truck ramp dimensions
- Moving tools like a fort, dolly, and flatbed cart
- The area of packaging in both the data centres
- Identifying production, staging, and development equipment to prevent misplacing it at a new location
- Racking and untracking at a brand-new location
- The time for cabling needs
To conclude, the key to a successful data center migration best practices is comprehensive and careful planning.