We have about 15 Windows 2003 and 2008 servers at our data center, which host hundreds of different sites and databases. We have to move them to a new rack from 5th floor to 3rd floor. This move possibly involves switching off power and/or network for a while.
I want to keep the servers on while we do the move. Can anyone suggest how to do this? Please dont hesitate to also give other important tips and tricks which can help automate as many things as possible.
It can be done. Some guys did it to a server in Germany.
You need to be sure that
a) Your server has dual powersupplies.. So that you can unplug one, and connect a UPS, before disconnecting it from the mains.
b) You can support traffic over a 3G connection, and set up routing as such.
I don't recommend it, but it can be done.
Schedule downtime and move them as quickly as possible while not screwing up and damaging them in your haste.
Buy some heavy duty servers and migrate some servers to virtual servers to host on the new datacenter. Switch off old systems. Migrate database servers by setting up replication and having them migrate automatically then shut off the master and move it down to the new datacenter and bring it back up.
...really really long power cables. And network cables.
That's about all I could think of. Downtime and move them, virtualize/replicate them to the second site before shutting down the old, and really long rube goldberg ways of moving them while on, which as others pointed out, will give you about a 80% of screwing up and severely damaging the servers.
Or you could buy new hardware and test your backup strategy by restoring to the new location and shutting down the old.
Honestly, Don't!
It's more trouble to keep em running then you'd like!
Network connectivity:
wifi: won't be strong enough to get trough the 2 floors of datacenter (remember wifi is meant to be line of sight) and might not be allowed in some dc's
wire: you most likely aren't allowed to keep the doors of the dc's open and you'll get some really weird looks from dc staff.
Power:
wire: again the doors and weird looks...
ups/battery: to really keep uptime you possibly need to switch to a REALLY BIG ups and if you don't have redundant power supplies that is just not going to happen without shutting down.
Risks:
Diskdrives: DO NOT MOVE A SPINNING DISKDRIVE PERIOD.
Sure most professional disks will go into 'park' mode when detecting shocks or movement but that still means that data won't be written. and if this technology fails or just isn't in time you will scratch the actual disks and cause data corruption!
Uptime and moving:
If you trough all this still manage to keep power and network.
Now you need a way to move the 15 servers and networking equipment all at once keeping them together because your servers also rely on connectivity between each other to work (nas, database, load balancers, etc.).
Now if you still have found a way to do this and are insane enough to risk doing it.
Give your customers a notice that you might have a possible downtime within a certain 24 hour window.
Maybe all goes well... maybe you knock one of your servers over and damage the components inside.
Honestly. just schedule downtime and do it the proper way.
Risking completely losing data and/or equipment is way worse then a day of downtime.
All in all, it's a good question and don't feel ashamed for asking because it's good to question what is possible.
Why do they need to be switched on? Moving powered on servers seems like you're asking for trouble. I wouldn't want to move a server up 2 floors that still have spinning disks in them. Not to mention the fact that there wouldn't be any network connectivity during the move, so what's the benefit?
Schedule downtime for the cutover, or do the move in sections and do it right.
One other option would be to replace all those servers with fewer and do the move in one go by virtualising the servers using a P2V tool. Basically setup the new servers on the new floor and do a live P2V conversion from the old floor. You'll see a little downtime as the new server boots up and you stop the old one but it's a good way of killing two birds with one stone.
