* Nine steps to server consolidation
Take a look in your server room(s) and closet(s), as well as in the corners of your office – how many servers do you have? How did it ever get that way? Servers seem to pop up whenever your back is turned. While its good practice to install new services on dedicated hardware just to avoid any possible adverse interactions, you should plan to consolidate those services on a smaller number of platforms as soon as you can.
Ease of management of fewer boxes is one reason, but don’t overlook the real dollar savings in resources – electricity, cooling, cable plant, real estate, and so on. But don’t approach it half-cocked. Server consolidation requires planning and attention to each phase of the project.
Microsoft has provided some tools that can help, but first you need to grasp the methodology used. This involves nine steps, presented here in outline form:
1. Assess current infrastructure
* Determine the capacity and usage of servers.
* Document the support and management processes.
* Take inventory of your server infrastructure.
* Determine the cost of managing and maintaining your infrastructure.
2. Identify goals
* Determine your top business and technology priorities for the project.
* Make trade-offs among priorities, including high availability, cost reduction, and infrastructure flexibility.
* Identify the required capacity goals of the new environment.
* Determine the cost goals for managing and maintaining consolidated infrastructure.
* Plot the schedule and budget for the consolidation project.
3. Design a new environment
* Research your hardware and software options.
* Select an infrastructure based on your capacity and growth requirements.
* Design for failover and redundancy.
4. Plan for the migration
* Assess the business impact of each of the consolidation alternatives.
* Identify the organizational roles and responsibilities during and after the consolidation.
* Fully assess plan, risks, budget, and desired results prior to implementing.
5. Build, test, and implement the new pilot environment
* Identify the needed hardware and software.
* Know your specific network and infrastructure design.
* Acknowledge any technical limitations and risks.
* Build and test your consolidated environment.
6. Developing a plan for migrating users and data
* Write procedures for moving users and data to the new environment.
* Build a detailed deployment schedule, including contingency plans.
* Set the criteria for proceeding.
7. Implement the new production environment
* Deploy applications, utilities, and tools in the new, consolidated production environment.
* Develop and document post-consolidation maintenance and management procedures.
8. Migrate users and data to the consolidated environment
* Ensure that appropriate backups and contingency plans are in place prior to migration.
* Complete migration according to detailed schedule
* Test consolidated environment, including users and data.
* Transition to the new production environment.
9. Evaluate and review
* Evaluate the results of your consolidation project, including costs and maintenance procedures.
* Reevaluate the consolidation on a regular basis.
* Optimize your environment.
When you organize the project it’s really not that difficult. Find out more at https://www.microsoft.com/servers/consolidation/ where you’ll also find list of “best practices” for these steps as well as links to tools, books, articles and classes to help you plan, create and carry out a well-organized consolidation plan. Maybe if you consolidate enough servers you can clear out room for a more comfortable chair back in the corner where you can read those books you’ve been piling up and meaning to peruse.
