Preparing To Migrate

1.1 File Copies

If you have a large data set, it may take some time to copy file data from one server to another. This is especially true if you are copying from one VM to another, it is generally recommended that you.

1. Start a file copy early (the week before)
2. At the time of migration, stop the server and backup the database (as per 3.2)
3. Complete the file copy again, skipping files that were already copied.

This may require the use of a tool such as RoboCopy, but will save time migrating large amounts of data.

1.2 Risk Mitigation

If something goes wrong with the migration, make sure you leave the old server in a state that you can rollback to it if necessary. For example:

1. Do not move the files during the file migration step
2. Do not drop the database until you are sure the system is ready and up and running.