Tag Archives: vmware

Data Centre Migration Strategies – Part 2 – Lift and Shift

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Continuing on from Data Centre Migration Strategies Part 1 – Overview, Part 2 focuses on the “Lift and Shift” method.

I’m sure your reading this and already thinking, “this is the least interesting migration strategy, tell me about vMSC and SRM!” and well, your right, BUT it is important to understand the pros and cons so if you are ever in a situation where you have to use this method (I have on numerous occasions) that the migration is successful.

So what are the pros and cons of this method.

Pros

1. No need to purchase equipment for the new data centre
2. The environment should perform as it did at the original data centre following relocation
3.The approach is simple from a technical perspective ie: No new products are required
4. Low direct cost (Note: Point 8 in Cons)
5. Achieves a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero (0).

Cons

1. The entire environment needs to be fully shut-down
2. The outage for the environment starts from when the servers are shut-down, until completion of operational verification testing at the new datacenter. Note: This may take several days depending on the size of the environment.
3. This method is high risk as the ability to fail back to the original datacenter requires all equipment be physically relocated back. This means the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) cannot be low.
4. The Lift and shift method cannot be tested until at least a significant amount of equipment has been physical relocated
5. In the event of an issue during operational verification at the new data centre, a decision needs to be made to proceed and troubleshoot the issues, OR at what point to fail back.
6. Depending on your environment, a vendor (eg: Storage) may need to revalidate your environment
7. Your migration (and schedule) are heavily dependant on the logistical side of the relocation which may have many factors (eg: Traffic / Weather) which are outside your control which may lead to delays or failed migration.
8. Potentially high indirect cost eg: Downtime, Loss of Business , productivity etc

When to use this method?

1. When purchasing equipment for the new data centre is not possible
2. When extended outages to the environment are acceptable
3. When you have no other options

Recommendations when using “Lift and Shift”

1. Ensure you have accurate wiring and rack diagrams of your datacenter
2. Be prepared with your vendor support contact details on hand as it is common following relocation of equipment to have hardware failures
3. Ensure you have an accurate Operational Verification document which tests every part of your environment from Layer 1 (Physical) all the way to Layer 7 (Application)
4. Label EVERYTHING as you disconnect it at the original datacenter
5. Prior to starting your data centre  migration, discuss and agree on a timeline for the migration and at what point and under what situation do you initiate a fail back.
6. Migrate the minimum amount of physical equipment that is required to get your environment back on-line and do your Operational Verification, then on successful completion of your Operational Verification migrate the remaining equipment. This allows for faster fail-back in the event Operational Verification fails.

In Part 3, we discuss Data centre migrations using VMware Site Recovery Manager. (Coming soon)

 

Data Centre Migration Strategies – Part 1 – Overview

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After a recent twitter discussion, I felt a Data Centre migration strategies would be a good blog series to help people understand what the options are, along with the Pros and Cons of each strategy.

This guide is not intended to be a step by step on how to set-up each of these solutions, but a guide to assist you making the best decision for your environment when considering a data centre migration.

So what’s are some of the options when migrating virtual machines from one data centre to another?

1. Lift and Shift

Summary: Shut-down your environment and Physically relocate all the required equipment to the new location.

2. VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Summary: Using SRM with either Storage Replication Adapters (SRAs) or vSphere Replication (VR) to perform both test and planned migration/s between the data centres.

3. vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC)

Summary: Using an existing vMSC or by setting up a new vMSC for the migration, vMotion virtual machines between the sites.

4. Stretched vSphere Cluster / Storage vMotion

Summary: Present your storage at one or both sites to ESXi hosts at one or both sites and use vMotion and Storage vMotion to move workloads between sites.

5. Backup & Restore

Summary: Take a full backup of your virtual machines, transport the backup data to a new data centre (physically or by data replication) and restore the backup onto the new environment.

6. Vendor Specific Solutions

Summary: There are countless vendor specific solutions which range from Storage layer, to Application layer and everything in between.

7. Data Replication and re-register VMs into vCenter (or ESXi) inventory

Summary: The poor man’s SRM solution. Setup data replication at the storage layer and manually or via scripts re-register VMs into the inventory of vCenter or ESXi for sites with no vCenter.

Each of the above topics will be discussed in detail over the coming weeks so stay tuned, and if you work for a vendor with a specific solution you would like featured please leave a comment and I will get back to you.

VMware Certified Associate – Data Center Virtualization , Cloud and Workforce Mobility

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Recently VMware has launched 3 new certifications aimed at the foundation layer to demonstrate your fundamental understanding of VMware technology in three key areas, being Datacenter Virtualization, Cloud and Workforce Mobility.

The good news is, these exams can be registered for, and taken online, and if your willing to sit the exams before the end of October 2013 Jan 2014, you can use the below voucher to sit all 3 exams for 50% off!

50% off Voucher

1. VCA13GKN

If the voucher does not work for any reason unfortunately there is nothing I can do to assist.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAC510 – Cloud (VCA-Cloud)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAD510 – Data Center Virtualization (VCA-DCV)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

VMware Certified Associate – VCAW510 – Workforce Mobility (VCA-WM)

The self-paced e-learning class can be found here and taken for free.

Coming soon there will also be the VMware Certified Associate – Network Virtualization (VCA-NV) for those folk who are focusing on the emerging network virtualization path with NSX (formally Nicira).

So you have nothing to loose, study the free self-paced e-learning classes, register for the exams and sit them at 50% off, in the comfort of your own home.

I sat and passed all three exams yesterday and I must congratulate VMware Education as I feel they have added a entry level certification for those people either starting in virtualization, non VMware partners (customers) who cannot access the VMware Sales Professional (VSP) or VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP) tracks, or for people who do not intend going down the technical certification path of VMware Certified Professional (VCP) , VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) or VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX).

I guess for me the exams were pretty easy, but I have had many years experience including administration, implementation and architecture, so the exams are not really designed for people who have already completed, VCP or higher, but the exam questions tests general product knowledge which shows the test taker understands what VMware product helps solve what problem which is a important.

For anyone considering going down the VCP track, VCA is a great starting point and will help build your confidence to tackle the harder VCP (and beyond) exams.

Related Articles

1. My VCDX Journey  

2. The VCDX Application Process

3. My VCAP-DTD (Design Design) Experience

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