Data Center move recovery ideas

[Ray Allen_1]

Hi All,

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Here's my scenerio.
We are planing on moving to another building within a year or so. I am trying to get some ideas, or find out the what might be the best and quickest way to prepare for the move, regarding a potential restore/recovery on a server should something happen to a server. (ie. hard drive crash, server won't boot)
We have 13 HP Unix servers, 11.12 to 11.23, one of which is an Ignite server. We take ignite images of VG00 monthly, and daily backups on the servers.
Also, how would I get an image of the Ignite server itself? Install the ignite software on another server and take an image of it, maybe? And what about restoring the archive of a server onto a slightly different server within the same family (ie. itanium-itanium and pa-risc-pa-risc).
I am not sure which route to go, either Ignite recovery and restore from backup, or use dd of the entire disk to CD. The only thing about dd to the CD, I am not sure if the CD would be bootable to copy the data back to the hard drive.

Again, thanks for your responses.

[DCE · Accepted solution]

to answer the second question first - You make a ignite tape of your ignite server. You can use pretty much any SCSI attached tape drive for that.

We use a central ignite server as you do, with weekly make_net_recoveries on all the client servers. We also do a weekly make_tape_ignite of the ignite server. You have two options (at least)for the backup archives. You can include them on the ignite tape, otr you can do a weekly tar to a seperate tape. Both methods work, it just depends on your server configuration. By the way this system works well - I have succesfully restored the servers from tape multiple times at disaster recovery testing.

One thing you should consider (from experience) Arrange to have an HP engineer on site, or on standby during the move. Depending on your support level, ther maybe an additional charge for this, but it is worth it. In fact, they may have to re-certify the equipment after the move in order to keep the equipmnet under support. By having an HP engineer there- dwn time would be kept to a minimum.

[Ray Allen_1]

DCE. Thanks for the great feedback.
By doing the weekly_make_network recovery archive, does this take up more space, or does it overwrite the current recovery archive?

Also, if there are applications that I want to capture in other VG's, should I include them in the archive as well?

Having an HP onsite during the move is a great idea. I will have to look into our contract for that.

[DCE]

Ray,
The weekly make tape recovery is done to tape, so it depends on how many tapes I have in the rotation. It does overwrite whatever is on the tape.

Make net recovery, by default, saves the last two iterations. You can change the number of make net recovery's retained by a command line parameter.

For VG's outside vg00, I would recommend taking a backup via fbackup (or whatever tool you use) just before you move the systems. Ignite is designed to recreate the boot image on tape (or create network bootable image) - it is not designed for extended, or large volume, backups.

I have moved systems several times. Before each move:
*performed Ignite backup
*shut down all apps
*fbackup (or data protector) of all vg's outside vg00
*depending on the support level
**shutdown systems myself
**had HP shutdown systems
*moved systems (sometimes HP will do this - depending on support)
*started up systems
*verified systems.

If you are moving to a new building, do your IP addresses change?

If so, don't forget to make all the associated changes:
DNS
/etc/hosts

[Ray Allen_1]

DCE. Thanks very much.

[Allan Bowman]

Ray,

The last time I had a large system move from one location to another, it was under contract (Compaq at the time) and they had a service available to contract customers where they would shut down the system and prepare it for moving and then bring it back up at the other end (I think you could even have them physically move the equipment for a higher fee, and a longer scheduled down time). This eliminates any need for an additional visit for recertification, and ensures timely service in the event of any problems after the move. I don't know if HP still offers this service, but if they do, it would definitely be your best bet.

Allan in Atlanta

[Ray Allen_1]

Allan,

Thanks. I will definitely look into our contract to see if this service is available.

Thanks.

[Chuck Ciesinski]

Ray,

In addition to what has already been said.

1. I would strongly suggest that the networking drops and cabling be prepared first.
2. If you have a test server, move it first and test your networking. Last time I moved a data center, we had the networking completed a week ahead of the move date. During the week before the the move, I had HP arrange to move my test server and re-install it it in the new center. Gave us a chance to rest network, power, A/C, physical access controls, determine we needed more console space prior to the real move. The dress rehearsal, with HP and movers helped a lot. We were scheduled to be down from 6 PM Friday to 6:00 AM Monday.

All my servers were back in production at 4:00 PM Saturday...

HTH,

chuck