How to Move a Data Center Without Breaking Any Dishes

Relocating a data center is no easy task by any means but it is a fact of life that companies must face with mergers, moves, consolidations, buildouts and other changes. Without a doubt, such an undertaking can quickly become the perfect storm for data center administrators, especially if floor plans or other physical requirements change in midstream.

In addition to the obvious steps they have to undertake such as planning shut downs, decommissioning old devices and consolidating servers, administrators also have to consider application down time. Fortunately, shutting down services is avoidable today due to the availability of hosted data centers and cheap hardware.

However, hosting applications requires extensive preplanning so that any staging and production requirements are met without a hitch. While there is a huge downside to transferring critical systems on to foreign environments, sometimes administrators have to bite the bullet and make hard choices to make sure that applications continue to run.

Proper planning is crucial in getting services and equipment transferred pain free so that users don't experience any disruption during work hours. Ultimately administrators end up doing the grunt work, so good communication between the different IT groups, including architects and engineers, can lead to a headache free relocation.

Recently, the CMP Channel Test Center lab moved between floors at our Manhasset offices. To get there, a "mini-plan" was created so that our infrastructure would only be down for two to three days at maximum. In the middle of mapping it all out, floor planning changed as well as power sources, UPS service and network layout. To minimize downtime during the move, we quickly devised a plan of action. Here's a step-by-step look at how this was done, and how solution providers can plan similar moves, to take as much pain out of the process as possible:

1. Coordinate with facilities, electricians and IT staff -- From the beginning, we told each group precisely what infrastructure equipment and racks we needed to transfer at the minimum. The new server room we moved to is smaller, so there was potential for it to pose a space problem for all the necessary racks and shelves. We figured out the minimum number of racks and shelves that could both fit in the server room and could house our equipment.

2. Shutting down but staying up -- The day of the move we came up with a simple but effective plan of action so that editorial priorities would be met. Staff here began removing equipment and dismantling without shutting down key network access.

3. Cooling and other services -- Here, there is potential to fail to plan for the future. The new server room for the CMP Channel Test Center requires less cooling infrastructure, for the same amount of work and processing, because of its design; we will be watching closely, though, to gauge it as we grow. When you move a data center, you will also need to talk to electricians about issues such as maximum loads that are available in new server rooms to make sure future growth can be accommodated and CIOs and CEOs are kept aware.

4. Maintain a data center heartbeat -- data transfers and keeping critical applications was never an issue. However, based on our experience, the least costly course of action is to split the job. In other words, have two data centers while the move is taking place. VARs servicing small data centers should recommend splitting locations to maintain service continuity. This step eliminates the need for hosted infrastructures.

5. Getting up and running -- Don't cut network wires from racks and network panels unless it is necessary. The less cutting, the less costly the job becomes and the faster a client can be up and running. To speed up the process for the CMP Channel Test Center's move, staff here kept most of the wiring intact and labeled any network wires that we unhooked. Since we knew the layout was going to be smaller, leaving the cables proved to be a huge time saver.

6.Test, test, test -- Don't be satisfied with a minimum setup. Test network connections, external services and servers while other parties responsible for the relocation are still under contract and liable for damages.

Relocating the lab proved to be an eye-awakening experience for all of us. Many small details that are often dismissed in the course of working and testing equipment became important and needed to be addressed during the move.

Capacity planning, too, became a crucial step that required our attention. This is the fourth time our lab has moved locations in about 20 years. Despite some hiccups, we were able to keep working with only minimal disruption and we feel confident that any potential unforeseen power and growth requirements and other network constraints we encountered during the move should not be a problem.