Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Moving datacenters - How to minimise downtime?

[mohamedahmad]

Hi all

We will be moving our servers to a new datacentre and I was wondering what could be done to minimise our downtime? I am relatively new to this and would appreciate your suggestions.

Many thanks

[JohnCrowley]

Well, if you need to move the hardware, then I'll leave that to those that have went down this road.

If you can afford to build identical servers in the new datacenter, then you can copy over the data to these new servers (rsync, scp, tar, etc...), bring the old servers down, re-copy any changed data, and bring them up in the new DC.

If you are using new IP's in the new datacenter, then set your TTL to a low value and then update the DNS when you are ready to use the new servers. Or, re-route your IP block to the new DC.

Then ship the old hardware to the new DC for on-hand spares.

We have completed many DC server moves in the above fashion with less than 1 hour of downtime per server.

- John C.

[sshepherd]

If you can afford to, I second waiting till an expansion or funds to purchase additional servers to copy / image your existing servers (or critical servers). A lot less hectic that way should anything go wrong.

[enetpresence]

If you cannot afford that scenerio.... Well, unplug it really fast and run!!

without redundancy you are going to have downtime of some sort. Notify your customers and plan the task thoroughly.

[mohamedahmad]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys! So you reckon the best way would be th coy the servers to a new one before transferring? We will be getting one brand new server at the new DC so maybe we can copy the most critical apps to that one before transferring?? Also can someone elaborate more on the TTL and DNS issue? Not 100% sure on what to do there. Any useful articles to point me to?

I really appreciate the response! Many thanks

[AvailNetworks]

I would say do a remote backup of the servers, move them then reimage and notify your customers of any downtime that may occur...not much else that can be done as far as I know really

[mohamedahmad]

Just curious as how the backup can help? Is it just to protect from losing data or for something else? Just a bit confused

[AdamSmith]

Where are you moving from and to?

[bqinternet]

A less expensive alternative to buying all new hardware at the new DC is to just get a few new servers, move everything off of them, and then take those old servers to the new DC to use in the next cycle of this process. You can then complete the move with minimum downtime by moving a few servers at at time. If you only have a few servers, then just one extra server is all you need.

[Colo4-Paul]

The most important thing is communicating with your clients. It is unlikely that you can make a move without them noticing it, so keep them in the loop. If people know it is coming you will probably have a little more time to deal with. Maybe even have a temp page were you have someone update the progress.

Most of the bad moves on WHT happened because someone tried to pull a fast one. Trying to skip out on the last payment on the colo contract or breaking a term is going to cause your current provider to not be willing to help you in any way. Others have done it with little notice so customers wouldnt have time to move off of them. A "shady" move is a red flag to customers. A well-planned move can show the customers your abilities and concern for them.

Make sure the customers and your new provider know your plans. If possible, tell the current provider. If your customers see that it is a well planned move they will prepare and be glad that you planned. If you dont want to tell your customers your plan then you might want to go back to the drawing board and get one you are proud of.

Remember to treat your customers as you would want to be treated. If your provider had to make a move, would you be happy if they did it like you are planning to do it?

[VooServers]

From the looks of things you are in Docklands so will you just be moving across the road or to a completley different location? If you are just moving across the road to one of the other facilities the easiest way is to probably leave someone at each datacenter and then use a car to move a few servers at a time. Your downtime would probably be less than an hour for each person but it depends how minimal you want your downtime to be. Like the others say, as long as you communicate well with your clients most of them probably will not have to much of a problem with it.

[AvailNetworks]

Originally posted by mohamedahmad
Just curious as how the backup can help? Is it just to protect from losing data or for something else? Just a bit confused

 

 

 

sorry it was poorly written on my part, yes it is a preventative measure just in case something happens during transport of the servers to the new place

[alanwoo]

Hi,

To ensure your domain name map to the new ip address after you move, change your DNS TTL to 30 minutes, 48 hour before you move, as your current TTL maybe set to the default 24 or 48 hour.

Before you move, update your DNS server, with the new ip address. And 30 minutes later, your domain will map to the new ip. If the new DC is not too far, you should be reaching there and put up your server and your domain is up.

Alan

[mperkel]

Yes - and you should chane the TTL values several days before the move or they would really have an affect. Keep that in mind.

[akucharski]

We have just made a DC move a month ago. Based on what we did here are my two cents..

1) Notify your customers, someone expounded on that already, but I want to reiterate - its very important. Most wont know that your doing it, but you will have some that have their own monitoring systems and will catch the downtime

2) Backup everything before the move. Do we really have to bring this up? Dropped server, scratched hard drive, server wont power up, etc. etc.

3) If possible, install a non critical server at new location. Test out the network settings to make sure all specks are correct, get familiar with new location, etc.

4) Plan the move for sometime between 2:00 am and 4:00 am, lowest traffic. Plan on being there all night.

5) DNS change, we planned our DNS server ahead of time and made the secondary name server IP point to the new location. That way when your primary gets moved, you dont have to worry about propagation, it will failover to the seconday as soon as its plugged in and running. Of course you should make that change at least 72 hours before the move.

6) Plan entry into the new DS, this may not apply but we made sure the DC knew we were coming. We had alternate phone numbers for the staff working that night to ensure we wouldnt be waiting for someone to open the door.

7) If you plan everything out, including details of IP mapping, server placement, logistics, teh downtime should be move + drive time + move + 1 to 3 hours of set up.

Good luck

REgards

Andrew