Plan for These Obstacles During Your Next Server Move

by Stephanie Faris on Monday, August 18 6:00

If you re planning a server move, you likely already realize the process can be a complicated one. Even with months of mapping out plans and meeting to discuss details, you likely will find something won t go exactly as planned. When intricate computer networks are involved, Murphy s Law seems to apply: If something can go wrong, it will.

One of the best things you can do as you prepare for your server room move is to list out the things that could go wrong, then write a plan for preventing those things from happening. Here are a few of the most common server move mishaps that could create problems during the move process.

Damaged Equipment

When your equipment is picked up, moved to a truck, driven across town, and carted from the truck into the new building, damage is possible despite your best efforts. A professional server moving company has the equipment and experience necessary to prevent these events from occurring, but even if equipment is moved using professional equipment and transported with padding, occasional problems happen. For this reason, it's important to make sure your move is insured against loss during the moving process.

Component Failure

No matter how safely equipment is transported, any time equipment is powered down and brought up again, there is a small potential for component failure. This is especially true if your hardware has multiple years of use under its belt. In advance of your move date, make sure your data is not only backed up, but can be quickly accessed by a replacement machine in the event the server doesn't come back up after your move. As an extra safeguard, also be sure you have an extra server ready to serve as a backup if one of your servers should fail during the move.

Connectivity

Even if your server move is scheduled for a long weekend, you'll likely find that there are at least a few snags the first business day after a move. The best way to protect against this is to conduct extensive planning in the months leading up to your move, listing all of your applications and file servers and ensuring they'll work in a new location, with new IP ranges and cabling. During the weekend of the move, plan to have extra workers on hand at your office to test application and file connectivity in each of your user areas. If you connect to those servers using mobile devices, this would also be the time to test connectivity on smartphones and tablets.

Label Racks

Prior to your move, you'll probably have your racks and shelving in place to house your equipment once it arrives. The best course of action is to label equipment to correspond with labels attached to racks. This will give the server movers specific instructions on where to place equipment, saving time on move day and getting your business operational much more quickly.

For best results, you should work with a professional server moving company with experience handling these types of moves. You'll be assigned a project manager who will work you through each step of the process and ensure you don't forget any small items.