Migrating servers to Expedient

Server migrations take place in one of two ways: by purchasing Expedient’s migrations services and tools, or with a refresh of new VM builds.

In the case of new VM builds, you have the opportunity to deploy newer operating systems for your servers. Please note that you will be responsible for installing all applications and moving of data between the old server and new server.

In the case where your servers are physical, your Account Executive will provide you with pricing to perform a P2V (Physical-to-virtual) migration. You will work with one of our Service Delivery teams to replicate your server from its current location to the Expedient cloud.

In some cases it may be necessary to perform some upgrades in order to successfully migrate the server without causing noticeable performance problems prior to migration. Once replication is complete the Service Delivery team will work with you to schedule a cutover.

In the case where you have VMs running outside of the Expedient cloud your Account Executive will provide you with pricing to perform a V2V (virtual-to-virtual) migration. You will work with one of our Service Delivery teams to replicate your server from its current location to the Expedient cloud. We have a few preferred migration tools. We will discuss your current environment during a project kickoff call to determine which tool will be right for the situation. In some cases this will require the same tools we use for P2V noted above. and the same considerations apply. For others we are able to replicate the VMs from the Hypervisor and there are no installations needed on the source server OS. In those instances our Service Delivery team will walk you through what components must be installed or configued in the source environment. Once replication is complete the Service Delivery team will work with you to schedule a cutover.

As part of the cutover planning process it is important to determine if your servers will use a new IP subnet, or if they must maintain the current IP scheme. Use of a new IP subnet provides much more flexibility in the cutover process, including the ability to cutover a very small number of servers initially and then cutover the rest later. If the existing IP scheme must be maintained then the cutover will likely require all servers to move at the same time. We call this the "lift and shift approach." In many cases we find that clients prefer to move all servers in one maintenance window, but those with a large number of servers sometimes prefer to move in smaller batches. If this approach works best for you, our Service Delivery team will perform up to 3 cutover windows with you. If you need more cutover windows we often can show you the steps to perform those additional cutovers on your own, or your Account Executive can provide you with pricing to continue working with our Service Delivery team.

Note that our Service Delivery team has limited weekend availability, and scheduling may require several weeks lead time. If you are able to schedule cutover(s) on a weekday night we can typically get this scheduled on much shorter notice.