P2V SIMS Server

[foofighterjim]

Morning All

 

We will be having our SIMS server P2V'd over the summer and the existing hardware brining into our Cluster. Although I'm less optimistic about this after reading this: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/168374-users-reported-using-sims-very-slow-how-improve-performance-sims.html

 

The company we would usually use for this has quoted over £1,300 just for the P2V element, which I personally feel is very excessive given the actual work that it involves. I have been looking at taking the P2V element of this work on myself but the fact that it is the SIMS server is making me uneasy. Is there anything in particular that needs to be done with SIMS to ensure a successful P2V?

 

What my basic understanding suggests, keeping everyone off SIMS for the duration:

 

1. Install VMware Converter on the SIMS Server.
   
2. Stop all SQL instances and all non Microsoft services.
   
3. Select an appropriate ESX host by IP and an appropriate storage location.
   
4. Keep the workstation name the same.
   
5. Remove any local mapped drives from being moved.
   
6. Make sure that the network interface is not connected at power on.
   

 

After the migration completes.

 

1. Remove any unnecessary hardware mappings like serial and parallel ports from the VM.
   
2. Power off physical SIMS server and bring virtual server online.
   
3. Re-Map any removed shares.
   
4. Restart all stopped services and SQL instances.
   
5. Test, test and test some more.
   

 

Like I said, anything other than the SIMS server and I'd be quite happy to take a swing at it. Or would I be better off paying for it to be moved and removing the what if factor? Any advice or suggestions welcome.

[IrritableTech]

Can you find a window to test this? If it doesn't go as planned you can always restart the physical machine and go back to the drawing board.

 

I've P2V'd a couple of sims servers. One to a HyperV host and another to XenServer. Both went fine and continued to work swiftly.

 

Is it just a sims server - or does it run other associated services - intouch, solus3, emerge, groupcall etc? Sims is pretty easy to move I've found if planned carefully.

[3s-gtech]

Give it a shot yourself. I've done it, also on ESXi, and I'm not a pro with it. Initial P2V was from a crusty old server onto a reasonably specced host (2 x quad core CPUs with 32GB RAM, 8 x 15k SAS in RAID 10). This was fine but overkill, I've since condensed it onto another of our ESXi hosts, this time with 16GB of RAM but it now runs from a dedicated SSD DAS array. Work fine, running Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 at present.

[foofighterjim]

Can you find a window to test this? If it doesn't go as planned you can always restart the physical machine and go back to the drawing board.

 

I've P2V'd a couple of sims servers. One to a HyperV host and another to XenServer. Both went fine and continued to work swiftly.

 

Is it just a sims server - or does it run other associated services - intouch, solus3, emerge, groupcall etc? Sims is pretty easy to move I've found if planned carefully.

 

The problem is that with external access I never have a window of availability to test. There is always a deadline for something that means it can't go offline, it can be bad enough trying to fit in the main release updates and they only take a matter of minutes to apply. Even the half term is a write off with practically the whole of year 11, sixth form and their teachers in.

 

It is running SOLUS 3 and a few other SIMS related tools like Firefly uploader, the latter just being a scheduled task.

[robyholmes]

The problem is that with external access I never have a window of availability to test. There is always a deadline for something that means it can't go offline, it can be bad enough trying to fit in the main release updates and they only take a matter of minutes to apply. Even the half term is a write off with practically the whole of year 11, sixth form and their teachers in.

 

It is running SOLUS 3 and a few other SIMS related tools like Firefly uploader, the latter just being a scheduled task.

 

You can always capture the SIMS server while its being used and try boot it up without a network connection? That way it can't do any damage. Proves the process works etc. I've doen this with my SIMS server. Had some problems with master boot record etc but nothing you can't fix with google and WinPE.

[foofighterjim]

You can always capture the SIMS server while its being used and try boot it up without a network connection? That way it can't do any damage. Proves the process works etc. I've doen this with my SIMS server. Had some problems with master boot record etc but nothing you can't fix with google and WinPE.

 

Would this work without the services and the DB being stopped? I was under the impression that the DB would just not get migrated if it was in use.

[synaesthesia]

Blimey, that is a lot of money for a P2V. It really isn't any more difficult than the steps outlined. There would have to be downtime anyway for a 3rd party to do it, so book a maintenance window or two. The only real benefit of having a 3rd party do it is liability should something happen.

[robyholmes]

Would this work without the services and the DB being stopped? I was under the impression that the DB would just not get migrated if it was in use.

 

I didn't stop the services when I did mine, but not sure if the tool itself did. I booked two days to do it but it only took about 2 hours. Meant I could do a load more jobs. Even if the DB doesn't work, at least you know the OS migrates without error.

[foofighterjim]

Blimey, that is a lot of money for a P2V. It really isn't any more difficult than the steps outlined. There would have to be downtime anyway for a 3rd party to do it, so book a maintenance window or two. The only real benefit of having a 3rd party do it is liability should something happen.

 

Agreed but the point being that there wouldn't be the need for downtime prior to the day, as it stands I would need a test window and the day of the migration. As @robyholmes said I might just give it a go without stopping services next week just to prove concept.

[smithson83]

@foofighterjim did you ever manage this, I'm thinking of P2V'ing my SIMS server and was wondering if all went well?

[foofighterjim]

Yes, it went without issue. I converted it over a weekend in June telling staff it was down for scheduled maintenance. I powered down the physical server and spun up the VM on the evening and nobody mentioned anything on the Monday At the end of the week I told staff what had been done and got them actively looking for faults (I knew if I had done this straight off the bat an issue would have coincidently appeared because of the migration).

 

I did a couple of test migrations first to get the method and see if there were any underlying issues with the original server. On one of my tests I didn't even stop the SQL instance and it all worked fine (not that I'm recommending it).

[pete]

@smithson83

 

Is there a reason you're simply not standing up a fresh SIMS server, testing it with a backup of the database(s) to make sure everythings as it should be and then cutting over in a scheduled maintenance window?

 

Capita don't have a problem with you running a second SIMS server for testing purposes.

 

The downside is if you've got any third-party integration who insist their software is a special snowflake and they need to install it.

 

I've P2V'd and built from scratch. The latter is better from a "less cruft, clear idea of configuration" perspective.

Edited September 16, 2016 by pete

[foofighterjim]

@smithson83

 

Is there a reason you're simply not standing up a fresh SIMS server, testing it with a backup of the database(s) to make sure everythings as it should be and then cutting over in a scheduled maintenance window?

 

I won't go into it but for us there was no option but to P2V, a clean install would have been the preferred route otherwise.

[smithson83]

I'm new to the school, and its running like a dog, with a host of extra tie (Emerge etc) and other services (Equitrac printer auth db etc) using the SQL DB. So as a medium term to get sims running quicker, I wanted to P2V it to get it on better hardware.