Here's my scenario: I'm a developer that inherited (unbeknownst to me) three servers located within my office. I also inherited the job of being the admin of the servers with a distinct lack of server administration knowledge and google / ServerFault as a reference point. Luckily, I've never actually had to come into contact physically with the machines or address any issues as they've always 'just worked'.
All three machines are located within the same data room and serve the following purpose:
Machine1 – IIS 8.0 hosting a number of internal applications
Machine2 – SQL Server 2008 R2 data store for the internal applications
Machine3 – SQL Server 2008 R2 mirror store of Machine2
All three have external hard drives connected that complete back ups frequently.
I've been informed that all three need to move from one data room to another within the same premises. I wont be completing the physical moving of the hardware, that'll be handled by a competent mover.
Apart from completing a full back up of each, what considerations do I need to make prior to hypothetically flicking the power switch and watching my world move?
I'm aware that it's far from ideal having all three located in the same room / premises but that's past the scope of this question.
Best Answer
Genuinely interesting question, well asked :)
There's a few things you need to check before this move, some easy, some hard.
Power - check that the new room has not only the right amount of power outlets but that they're the right type - as in physical connector type and if the current location allows for different power phases per server to protect against single phase failure then I'd strongly urge you to replicate that also in the new location.
Cooling - you need to check that there won't be an immediate or gradual build-up of heat that will lead to overheating and potential server shutdown. You can usually look up the maximum power (in watts) or heat (in BTUs) that each server can draw from the manufacturers website - let your building manager know this and get a written confirmation from them stating that the cooling in that location will cope.
Networking - this is the hard one - not only does the same number of ports need to be replicated between old and new location but so does their type, speed and most importantly configuration. This last point is the key - there was a time when almost all ports in a network were pretty much equal - I'm old enough to remember those times! but these days the number of port configurations and the place in the network that any one port can be in is astronomical, you need to make sure that your network people replicated EVERYTHING to be identical from old to new - again get this in writing as this isn't easy. If something goes wrong with this move I'd put money it'll be on the network ports not being identical, it happens all the time.
'Other connections' - do you know if your servers have any other connections than power and networking? perhaps they have Fibre-Channel links to shared storage, KVM links to a shared management screen - again if they do you need to replicate these identically.
Other than that feel free to come back here with any more specific questions, and I hope the move goes well.