DATACENTER MIGRATION Push/Pull (Physical move)

What is data center migration?

A data center migration is the process of deploying and transferring an existing data center environment to another data center operating environment.

How do you move a data center?

There are two basic models for moving a data center: push/pull (physical move) or lift and shift and Live migration (Available in 6.5 ).

What is lift and shift data center migration?

Lift and shift is a strategy for moving an application or operation from one environment to another – without redesigning the app. In the lift-and-shift approach, certain workloads and tasks can be moved from on-premises storage to the cloud, or data operations might be transferred from one data center to another.

Lift and shift pre check’s ?

Go to the ILO and check all the port details Eg. below .

Based on MAC address you can match the Port details and VMNic .Cullect all the network related details Eg .Old and new Rack name and unit ,Patching and switch details .Below you can see the example .

Port details and VMnic details you can check from VCenter .

1. Stranded Switch :

2. DV switch :

You  check VMnic status with MAC address from the configuration .

Must need to match VMnic to physical network ports also required proper tagging on physical hand .

Eg of PCI slots :

Eg of multipathing configuration :

Eg. to check the path details :

Note : May collect as much as data for inventory like.. DNS ,multipathing, storage, VLAN ,VM list etc..

Best practice is to manage configuration management database (CMDB) and proof of concept (POC) .

CMDB : Without that information, you cannot know what your infrastructure contains and what your current challenges might be.

POC : project while they manage strategy and day-to-day operations.

Recommendations when using “Lift and Shift”

1. Ensure you have accurate wiring and rack diagrams of your datacenter .
2. Be prepared with your vendor support contact details on hand as it is common     following relocation of equipment to have hardware failures
3. Ensure you have an accurate Operational Verification document which tests every part of your environment from Layer 1 (Physical) all the way to Layer 7 (Application)
4. Label EVERYTHING as you disconnect it at the original datacenter
5. Prior to starting your data center  migration, discuss and agree on a timeline for the migration and at what point and under what situation do you initiate a fail back.
6. Migrate the minimum amount of physical equipment that is required to get your environment back on-line and do your Operational Verification, then on successful completion of your Operational Verification migrate the remaining equipment. This allows for faster fail-back in the event Operational Verification fails.

MIGRATION :   (Make sure you have downtime for all VM’s and Host as going to shut down  )

1) put a host into maintenance mode.

command line interface :

By using putty you can enter the host .

  esxcli system maintenanceMode set –enable true

OR

GUI :

2) Need to maintain the load balancing within the host while migration .

Eg.   If you have 3 Host ( A , B , C ) in target cluster and first you are migrating Host A make sure move all vm’s from Host A to B or C also keep a note as have to revert back all the VM’s in original location which is Host A when it relocated  .

3) If you have only one host in cluster , power down all the VM’s one by one . some VM’s (Eg. Active Directy ,exchange and SQL ) having sequence so need to shutdown in a proper order   .