Data Migration

[Grayh]

The Application "SAP" is on two different servers connected to two different SAN devices and same OS on both the servers(rp7400 & L2000)..

Can I take a Backup of this Application on both the servers & then shutdown the servers and take them to the new location or what are the other things I need to take care of

[Bill Hassell]

>>> There are around 400 servers all together of which 160 are HP servers & rest from Sun & IBM...

Wow -- this is NOT a server A to server B project. I would strongly recommend hiring a consultant or two that specialize in consolidation. For 400 servers and no information yet, I would plan for a 4-5 month project.

>>>I do not have this info yet as I do not have access to the servers.. Could you please advise me on the info that I need to gather or more frankly need to ask which is needed for this please..

There simply is no easy set of questions and answers. Consolidation usually means reducing the server count and sizing the new boxes to handle multiple applications. That's a lot of testing and investigation. If you get the numbers wrong, the consolidated applications may have terrible performance. I assume that you already have a system architect to define the new servers and the consolidation matrix.

>>>When we say Backup in this Server Consolidation process.. wat all do we backup.. I know tar..cpio..dump / rdump / ufsdump... but in an environment as huge as this wat r the other options

Unix systems all have native backup tools like tar, cpio...NONE of which are appropriate to an enterprise quality backup. If the data is not very important, you can use tar or cpio. Otherwise, you may have well over 1000 tapes to properly document and restore to the correct servers. You need a backup program that labels every tape electronically and tracks the contents and dates in a database so there won't be any mistakes. The best tool for this many different platforms is Data Protector (from HP).

>>>When we say Imaging... wat do we do exactly.. are there any tools for Imaging..

Imaging is a fuzzy term but usually means restoring the operating system so the server can be booted up. For HP-UX, this is Ignite/UX. For AIX it is called mksysb. Sun is probably JumpStart, but each OS has some unique features for bootable media.

> Do any of the applications or databases use raw disks (disks without any files)?
>>>how do I find the raw disks

There is almost nothing in the OS to identify raw disks. This is why you have application and database administrators. They are the only people that will know about raw disks -- and hjow to back them up. Data Protector will handle raw disks with Oracle, Sybase, Informix, etc, backup interfaces into the databases.

[Grayh]

Thank you Bill...


Does anyone has a Post Migration Checklist... I mean like a format for the Pre-Migration & a Post Migration Checklist.. like wat all things to Include in it...

Can you guys share it with me plz...

Thanks

[Mel Burslan]

1. did the server come up without any errors ? (duuh point)
2. are all your SAN volumes visible via ioscan
3. are all other peripherals report CLAIMED in ioscan
4. are all networks up and ping their default gateways successfully.

If all of the above were answered yes, then it is time to fire up the applications and see if they can do what they need to. After a big move like yours (and soon mine), it is not uncommon to find apps not working properly due to some (mostly) networking/firewall issues. As you know, today's systems almost never work alone. They need to exchange data with other systems, mainly through network and if network is not set up properly, the application will suffer. There is no way to tell what these failures will be. So you will play by ear as they come and cross your fingers and pray that there will not be too many of those.

[Grayh]

I have not yet migrated the servers yet..

What would be the best way/method to move data from HP and AIX boxes... Are there any tools like Platespin which I use for Windows...

Plz Advise

[Mel Burslan]

Move data from where to where ? using what medium ? Are you talking about migrating SAN data over iSCSI or something between old and new data centers ? If so, I am sure the vendor for your SAN have a utility for this purpose.

[Grayh]

Oops.. I am confused now....

Let me put it this way..

To migrate a virtual machine(Virtual to Virtual or Physical to Virtual)... I use Platespin or VMConverter...


So in a same way what could be used to migrate a hp-ux VM(eitheer Virtual to Virtual or Physical to Virtual..)

[Mel Burslan]

Virtual machines are not my specialty but as far as the OS image goes, I am thinking, there should not be any difference and in that case, taking an ignite image of the existing server (physical or virtual) and blasting it on to the new platform in the new data center should be the method.

As I said, I did not deal with HP VMs so far, so, I do not know anything about their special requirements. But of the hardware abstraction is good, there should not be any difference between laying down an OS on physical or virtual machines.

[Grayh]

Mel,

Thank you..

Could you also give me the procedure to take an Ignite Image of the existing server and how to work with it please...

[Grayh]

Could someone help me with a post migration checklist... like what all to check once the migration is over..

[Mel Burslan]

Ignite is a whole new can of worms. There are two ways to make an ignite image:

1. to a tape media
2. to an ignite server on the network

Method 1. requires you have a tape drive attached to the system and you have stape driver loaded in your kernel. In turn, your new system will need to have a tape drive attached to it, capable of reading the tape that your ignite process will create. if you read the man pages of make_tape_recovery command, you will see the options that you can use, running this command. If you choose to go this way, make sure you have two separate ignite iumages taken from each server, preferably on brand new tapes. Studies show that >30% of tape backups turn out to be useless due to media defects when time to restore from them comes.

Method 2 is a deeper subject and there is an HP manual, explaining step by step, how to create an ignite server on your network and how to create ignite images and how to restore from them. It works best with flat network architectures. If you have too many firewalls and/or filtering routers in your environment, we found out the hard way that, the effort to set it up is not worth the time spent on the whole process. But for what it is worth, here is the network ignite server book I mentioned above:

http://docs.hp.com/en/5992-5309/index.html

As you will see from this page, this is not a one-man-show. At this point, I will suggest you to heed Bill Hassell's advice and get a consulting team involved. Unless you are moving 100+ servers 3 years from now, there is not enough time humanly possible to accomplish all these tasks by yourself. Do yourself a favor and hire QUALIFIED help.

[Bill Hassell]

Since you haven't said (yet) how the data will be transported to the new servers, I will have to assume tape. In that case, you simply setup each virtual machine (may take hours to define storage, memory, tape drives, etc), run the Ignite recovery tape and then restore the data files from your Data Protector backups.

PlateSpin is a Novell product and cannot use tapes -- it is a network migration tool. According to the Novell web pages, there is a Sun and SUSE/RedHat solution although it is not clear when servers and clients are defined.

Now if your plan is to migrate over the network, then a lot of things will change. The time required could double or triple unless you have 1000Mbit all the way to the new servers.

[Grayh]

Thanks Bill


Resources are being hired and may take another week for them to be on board( I Guess so)

In the meantime I wanted to complete the documentation part...

And so I am taking care of every bit...

And now I am about to document a Post Migration Checklist....

I can't think of anything as to wat to include in this list... Could someone help me out on this

[Mel Burslan]

Did you see my posting regarding post-migration checklist, from earlier today, timestamped 14:07 ?

[OldSchool]

"from Server A to server B....." -became- "...around 400 servers all together of which 160 are HP servers & rest from Sun & IBM.."

Uh...that's a totally different thing you know.

You & your management need to seriously consider hiring professional services for planning / implementation of this, as it's far from a trivial task.

I've been at this (sys admining) for almost 20yrs and I wouldn't have warm fuzzy feelings about doing this alone. The quantity of servers alone are daunting, not to mention the desire to "consolidate servers" and the mixed OSes.

There are so *many( potential issues. You've not even mentioned target hardware for new deployment (or are they simply attempting to relocate). Existing OS/releases might not be compatible with hardware. If you wind up having to upgrade OS, then the commercial apps might require upgrade, or at least verify that existing apps are supported on planned new hdw / os.

[Grayh]

I cannot mention Target h/w or go for new h/w as the OS being used by these servers are Obselete and no longer Supported..

HP-UX 11.00
Solaris 6
AIX 5.2
RHEL 3

I will only have to move the servers physically cos I cannot do anything with the above OS...

[OldSchool]

"I cannot mention Target h/w or go for new h/w as the OS being used by these servers are Obselete and no longer Supported.."



the above makes no sense, at least to me. you keep talking about moving & relocating & consolidating.

You have to have some idea of the "target" (what you are going to wind up running on) or you can't do ANY planning.

Unless what you are planning to do is simply physically relocate the old servers to a new facility?

[Roopesh Francis_1]

Grayh,

The fundamental thing is to get the plan from your management/engineering team. What is the goal for moving/migrating these much servers? I think this will be a long running project which will take at least one to one and half years to complete.
There should consultants or solution engineering planners for planning and coordinating all the required tracks(UNIX,DNS,DATABASE,NETWORK,APPLICATIONS etc..) .Being Unix administrator you will be having more task in this migrations but it doesnâ t mean you have to do everything.
As like above posts,I donâ t think you can plan anything without knowing what has to move or where has to move

[Sivakumar MJ._1 · Accepted solution]

Grayh..

My points..

1. Application Server Requirements
a. Application and its dependecies.
b. Backup the improtant and required configuration files.

2. Database Requirements
a. Name of the db
b. Size of the db
c. current version

3. Network requirements

a. what is the current nework setup
Current IP
Subnet
Gateway
Proxy
b. New Network Setup
Current IP
Subnet
Gateway
Proxy

4. Server requirements

a. New Server details (Hardware)
(If same configuration and same vendor then no issues, your OS Image should work)

If the server is off different configuration / Vendor

I. Support of your OS Image on the New config .

II. Get the Support matrix of the HBA Card

b. Note down the WWN Numbers of the HBA Card.


5. Storage/Backup requirements.

1. Note down the LUN Number and How its zoned to the Storage Array.
2. Take backup of your DB, Data etc...
3. Prepare a list of Recovery mount points or location.


6. New Site.

1. Make sure all your servers are UP and Running as per your environment requirements
2. Make ready the Server from OS Part
3. Configure and confirm the NW par is fine
4. Identify the servers that has SAN, and check the visibility of the SAN Disk in the server
5. Ask DB team to create DB
6. Ask App. team to implement Application
7. Restore your data from Backup.
8. Check if its working.



Note: DONOT UPGRADE ANY PATCHES OR FIRMWARES DURING A MIGRATION, DO IT BEFORE OR AFTER THE MIGRATION.

[Grayh]

Thanks every one for the Valuable comments..

[Grayh]

Thanks Every One