The Value of Dry Run Simulations in Data Center Migrations
A Great Way to Ensure Your Data Center Migration is a Success
Anyone who has been through a data center migration will tell you that the key to success is planning, planning and more planning… and they are not wrong.
There are several times throughout the process that will require you look at the data that’s been collected and analyzed and to make sure your plan matches the desired results of the upcoming migration event.
Walking through the migration execution plan in advance of the actual move is one of the more critical data center migration best practices. We call this a dry run exercise. Whatever you want to refer to it as is fine… as long as you do it! Some think simply conducting a test move to prior to migrating any production applications or servers is sufficient. While a test move is always advised, doing so in place of a dry run would be irresponsible.
Why is a Dry Run so important?
Because it allows everyone, yes everyone, who will be involved in the upcoming event to be able to walk through the minute-by-minute execution plan with a fine-toothed comb. The people who created the plan are not perfect. There will be mistakes related to sequencing of tasks, resource assignments and estimated duration.
All critical items that if not addressed will either cause major issues during the event, or set false expectations with regards to estimated downtime. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not spend the whole weekend trying to recover from an issue that could have been avoided by spending a couple hours during the week making sure the plan was solid.
Our migration plans are managed and executed through TransitionManager, which provides an automated workstream runbook that controls the sequencing and managing of hundreds and hundreds of interdependent steps.
Conducting dry runs with TransitionManager gives everyone the confidence that on move day we will be successful. Whatever tools you use to manage your migration, make sure you include at least one dry run exercise to make sure there are no surprises on the big day.
