We've got 20 servers that we need to remove from a datacentre that we haven't physically visited in about 5 years (I've never been there, it was from before my time). We've had to go through complete re-induction, security checks and had to re-apply for all our security passes again because it's been so long since we were there that they had changed security software and we weren't present in the new software.
I totally understand that - it's just good practice and makes me happy that our servers are in a controlled environment. But what I don't understand is that the datacentre security are stating that we're not allowed to remove more than 2 servers at a time (i.e. per night).
Being rank-and-file security guards, I got the line "They're just our instructions, we can't deviate" and I respect that, but I can't get any answers as to why.
This means that a one-night job has now turned into a 2-week job, which is exceptionally frustrating. Our current co-lo datacentre permits us fully un-restricted access, we don't even need to book, we can just show up and sign in.
Has anyone had experiences like this with datacentres before? Is limiting the movement of servers in/out of the datacentre normal practice?