Recently I was asked to assist an IT team in the replacement, installation and migration of their SIMS server. In taking this task on, I considered the following potential slip-ups that might occur during or after a migration to a new SIMS server and I thought it might be nice to share these:

- What is the current server technology (Server 2003 for example), and can this be upgraded during the process (Ensuring any version chosen is supported)?

- What is the current server technology (SQL Server 2003 for example), and can this be upgraded during the process (Ensuring any version chosen is supported, and proper migration paths are taken)?

- What hardware will the new server use (Memory, Processor, Architecture), can this be maximised cost effectively?

- Will the organisation be implementing additional features that will need additional storage or network connectivity (SLG/VLE for example), and can additional hardware be implemented at this stage?

- Can the setup be made more efficient by changing the location of the databases to a RAID 0 or 0+1 drive set (striped drives for faster read/write access), ensured redundancy (RAID 1 or 0+1) and ensured minimal other services run on the server?

- Can the physical server network connections be made any more efficient, or can the bandwidth be increased (teaming network card, faster switches, dedicated switches).

- How do I backup the database, perhaps using SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) maintenance plans and backup up that backup?

- Can I implement a redundant SIMS server to take over in case of failure (costly, but if you are backing up every night, and keeping the redundant server up to date, you only need to restore the database to the new drive

- Where do the client PCs point currently (connect.ini) in terms of server; can a more robust solution be implemented during this transition (implementation of a redirect connect.ini file to point to a single, central connect.ini would also cater for switching between main and redundant SIMS servers if in place, by just changing the central connect.ini details)?

- What other information points to the current server (sims.ini) that would need to change (Implementation of a standard sim.ini copied out across the network)?

- What additional services NEED to run on the SIMS server, can any be moved away?

- Remember to also move the SIMS Setups folder, Doc Storage folder, SNOVA folder and other folders to the shared network drive location, if being moved also.

All of the above considerations are secondary to the aim of getting SIMS up and running securely, but should be considered to minimise future downtime for upgrades and further migrations.

Read more on this and other topics on my site http://www.reedsoft.co.uk