Huge task ahead

billybob01

I have just taken over as an SA recently in our local college, and now have to learn the infrastructure, great i thought until i was just told that we will be moving into a new building in a years time!!!! Where the hell do i start in documenting what requirements are needed in order to move (improve) our entire network infrastructure!!! Does anyone have any ideas or links i could use to get a better understanding.

dynamik

Start unplugging cables and see who complains.

How big of a college is this?

Start broad and then get more specific. Start with the physical cabling and then look at things in more detail (how traffic is routed, firewall settings, services running on servers, etc.).

Congrats on the new position, btw.

hypnotoad

Here's what I'd look at...

Do we know where the fiber/copper wires are? What do we have to do to make physical connections to our new site?

How do we get the new building ready? Does it have existing fiber?

Do we know where the WAN lines are? What will it take to keep those operation? Are we going to be moving the demarc?

Do we know what the phone system requires? Is the PBX (if you have one) staying put?

Do we have cooling and electricity for the servers? Are we going to be moving our UPSes and/or Generators?

How will services be effected during the move? Will it all go down at once during a term break, or will it be done in sections? Can certain servers be eliminated so they don't have to be moved?

Do we have solid backups of our data before we start moving things?

Is there anything we can move 'before' we move to minimize server downtime?

Does the move give us the opportunity to improve on our existing infrastrcture by adding in redundancy?

Can we hire a workstudy student to help with the move?

liven

Follow Nl's suggestions.

Make a list of all the systems:

web,
mail,
backup
Routers/networking


Then get everything you can on them, IPs, make/model, power needs, rack needs, user needs etc.

Keep the file encrypted because that will have lots of information that could fall into the wrong hands.

Give your self a week or two for each group of servers.

Then after a month or so go back and re-evaluate the things you don't know about.

ALSO

LABEL EVERYTHING!!!

I have learned this the hard way. We setup dozens of machines and then ship them all around the world. Then fly to them and install them. Sometimes months go by before the install. You see the gear a few months later and can not remember which port was the inside, outside, DMZ etc. Get a label maker and GO TO TOWN, you will thank me later. Label the server on the front and label all the ports on the back (be specific, it will pay off).

Then add the labeled info to the above spread sheet you are creating. That way if you have to you can even print out portions of the spread sheet hand them to a junior admin and say cable up these servers.

Once we have the servers racked, and cabled, we even label both ends of the cables. If your stuck behind a rack of 12 dell 2950s and someone says unplug mail1 dmz interface, GOOD LUCK. But if the cable and interface are labeled, BINGO!!! Also if a cable fails or if something else is going wrong you can trouble shooting is much easier.


That is just my 2 cents. But like I said I have been through situations very similiar to thins MANY times now, and the things mentioned above have helped a lot.

Finally something will go wrong, why, I dunno but it just always does. So the more prepared you are the less the chances of an issue of something wrong happen are.

Good luck, you will do great! How do I know? Because your already preparing for something that is a ways down the road. That is a sign of a good admin!

Lee H

Hi

Just a thought - Yeah i sometimes do that, lol

Is there a peice of software were you could have all this information in the 1 place, simmilar to PC inventory software but encompasses the whole infastructure too

Lee H

billybob01

Many thanks guys, some good tips to think about. What scares me the most is the network infrastructure, as my manager is not really a peoples person, he has just left it to me to find out about eveything myself as he is too busy!! I dont complain, i just see it as a challenge, but where do i start!!! I suppose it`s just down to Documentation, Documentation, Documentation!!!!

Thanks again guys, you have been a great help.