Project Management

Please login or join to subscribe to this thread

IT infrastructure project - Server migration

linkedin twitter facebook   Information Technology  
avatar
Milind Patil Bangalore, Karnataka, India
I will be PM for server migration project. There are around 200 servers need to be migrated. This domain is new to me. I require your advice/guidance to deliver this project successfully.

How should I prepare for this new assignment?
What are pitfalls?
What will be high level activities?
What is the best method to estimate
Who will be componentwise supporting stakeholders?


Please share sample plan, resources(documents, online links) if some body worked on such proejcts.

Correction:
1) Few of them to be upgraded in existing enviromnent
2) Few of them (low in number less that 60) to be migrated altogether from existing environemnt to complete new DC

Also help me to identify effort sizing, Risks, Assumption and Contraints

And which methodology is sutitable?
Sort By:
< 1 2 >
avatar
Deepesh Rammoorthy ICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood Service Tarneit, Vic, Australia
Hi Milind,

This lends itself to a hybrid Project Management method.
You need to first complete a lot of planning and then you can execute work packages in parallel using the "Agile Mindset" through Scrum or Kan-ban.
you can even execute multiple planning streams in parallel

Planning Stream 1 :- Destination Data centre setup, cabling, power, racks, server and networking equipment, Drop dead dates for the move . Start planning your project backwards from the drop dead date

Planning Stream 2 :- Application Migration planning . This is where ,
Like I said before , Start with the 200 servers and break down their treatment into distinct work packages :-

1) Lift and Shift - do you have physical servers that you need to move to the new data centre and you cannot virtualize them due to legacy technology constraints? this is a separate work package . Identify all servers that fall in this category and plan out their migration

2) Virtual server transfer :- There are some virtual machines that you can straight away transfer from one data center to another.
These need to be on the latest supported windows server operating system. If they are not , you need to additionally consider the migration paths to the target operating system or consider the risk of not upgrading and get the Project sponsor to accept it .

3) Physical to virtual conversion :- some servers may be on Ageing hardware or the Destination may have space constraints so you have to absolutely virtualise. This would involve 1) Provisioning VMs 2) Porting over the applications 3) Testing the applications 4) Cutover of the applications.

4) Decommission and disposal :- You may no longer need some of the existing Windows servers and will need to decommission , securely destroy if you are removing physical hardware or engage a company to securely erase the hard drives etc.

I cannot unfortunately share any plans but you are sure to find templates out there on the internet
avatar
Daire Guiney Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
It really depends on the timeline that you are working to, that is how long do you have to migrate servers, does it require clients to be migrated or updated and do all the servers need to be migrated at the same time. From previous experience as well as following stated approaches and steps suggested by others, each IT environment is unique so I would Test, Test and then Test again before committing to any large scale migration. Ensure that you get the new environment working on limited servers and clients. This will ensure you know how to scale up the migration but also allow project owners and sponsor a chance to see if this is the IT environment that they envisioned. There has been many cases where IT vendors have sold companies 'a pup' that is something that does not measure up in the real world. This is normally done to increase sales.
Also ensure that you have a company wide agreement on the applications that you are using now and into the future so that all applications are able to work on the migrated environment.
Also ensure that you are not alone, that is you are not left carrying all the risk if anything should go wrong.
avatar
Joan Punzalan Head of Cloud Services, Professional Services and Project Management Office| eCloudvalley Technology (Philippines), Inc. San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines
Nov 12, 2019 11:28 AM
Replying to Sharahbeel Aziz
...
Activities very well explained by fellow colleagues , specially @Patanjali who brilliantly detailed out pre-requisites . This is quite comprehensive infact. The only little thing, i would add is that though test cases will be prepared and performed but you need to identify if this is the only criteria of successful migration. To avoid any ambiguity , you should have a well defined "Exit Criteria" for this migration. Also i suggest you to make a "Migration Strategy Document".
Hi can you share template /outline fo migration strategy document for cloud server migration? thank you.
avatar
sheetal Bhandari India
Any sample Infra migration Project Plan..I need to move server and apps from NY to HK .It is on premise
< 1 2 >

Please login or join to reply

Content ID:
ADVERTISEMENTS

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."

- Chinese Proverb

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors







Vendor Events

See all Vendor Events

Newsletters

Jun 3: The Career Problem Facing New PMs
May 20: Your PM Career as a Project Life Cycle
May 13: The Big Lie After Layoffs

See all newsletters