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Planning for Hardware
Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , trackbackSetting up a new server or two to run the application you’ve been building for the last few months is a simple matter, of course! Ironically, its something that often goes wrong in smaller projects, rather than larger ones, because it is forgotten in the rush and stress of testing and preparing for installation and teams don’t necessarily have anyone responsible for this area of the work.
This checklist should help, no matter whether your servers are running Windows, Linux, Solaris or whatever. Some of these are obvious, but many are often forgotten. Upgrades to infrastructure can be expensive, so should be considered when the business case is first raised, and checked in detail as soon as you start building your software, to give yourself plenty of time to arrange upgrades to the infrastructure your servers will depend on.
Do some sizing. This is a huge topic in itself, and will probably need specialist help from a systems administrator, architect, and / or database administrator.
- Think about the amount of diskspace you’ll need in a year’s time, and in three.
- How many users will you have?
- How many transactions will you do?
- How will the batch window work?
- Size for the life of the system, not just the first few months. Even if you don’t buy it all now, make sure you’re able to upgrade easily.
Is there enough space in the server room and racks? Go and look, and make sure space is saved for you.
Do you have enough power? Hardware vendors should have this information. HP, for instance, give useful calculation tools. A power upgrade to a server room can take weeks to plan, especially if servers run all night, so check this as early as you can.
Is the air conditioning strong enough to handle the extra heat output? Once again, a look at the hardware vendor’s website should help here.
Does your backup system have enough capacity? Do you need to buy more tapes? More tape drives?
Do you have enough switch ports?
Is there enough network capacity to handle the extra traffic?
Do you need to raise change requests for when you put the servers onto the network?
Is Service Delivery (or IT Operations, or whatever you call it) ready to support the servers? Have they got the information they need? If your support is outsourced, what do you need to do to get your outsourcer to take on your new system?
When you order the servers, don’t forget operating systems, virus checking, monitoring software and hardware maintenance.
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