We participated in the "Migration Competition 2017"!

My name is Teraoka and I am an infrastructure engineer

Recently, I participated in the "Migration Competition 2017" hosted by the MSP Association.
MSPJ Migration Competition 2017winter / connpass

I finished work early the day before and headed to Tokyo by Shinkansen... I was able to do a little bit of sightseeing.
I don't travel much myself, so this time it felt like a mini vacation and I enjoyed it!
...I forgot to take any photos (but I was enjoying it to the fullest)

■What about on the actual day?

It really forced me to use my brain. A lot. (I won't tell you that I was racking my brains from the very beginning.)
There were a lot more things I had to think about than I expected.
The goal of this competition was to "migrate the currently running system to a new environment," and while it
's easy to say "let's migrate," it's actually difficult when you actually try it...
I'm still a bit of an engineer myself, so I personally learned a lot, and I'm glad I participated!
Also, since we worked as a team on the day, I'd like to take this opportunity to secretly thank everyone on my team...
(Thank you very much).

To summarise what I had to think about, I came up with two points:

Desired "something"

It's not a request, but rather something like a request. It
's obviously not something concrete. It's extremely vague.
And there's no documentation or anything like that left.
So, if there are any unclear points, we have to ask questions and make suggestions ourselves.

・I would like a complete migration of our current environment to a new one.
・I would like a report on what was done and the results.
・I would like to be notified when the system is shut down, so I would like to be notified.
・It is an old environment that has been used for a long time, so I would like it to be upgraded.
・I would like to switch over without affecting users if possible.
・If possible, it would be great if there were documents related to the server.
・Currently, we are not taking any backups, so I would like to be able to do so
・If possible, I would like to make the system redundant as the number of users will increase in the future.
・If possible, it would be great if the information necessary for handing over to the new infrastructure engineer was compiled in one place.

...I see. (
In my team,
we worked with the policy of putting off the "if possible" part and first realizing the four "must" items.
Also, since we were assuming that no documentation would remain, we
had to leave behind documentation such as configuration information for the new environment. This was also difficult.

Technical factors when actually migrating

Technical elements are also important. You need skills to create something

• Migrating from AWS to Azure
• Migrate the server on which Redmine is running (including the data, of course)
• CentOS 5.3
• Since email delivery is performed, migration of the email server is also required

First, I started off by not knowing how to use Azure.
I knew how to use AWS, but unfortunately, since it was the source environment, all the new environments I had to build were on Azure.
The same goes for migrating Redmine and the mail server.
I researched each step, tried them out, and solved them. I learned a lot.

■What was the result of the competition?

I didn't win (definitely)

Summary

It was fun and I learned a lot.
The competition took place over the course of a day, but time passed much faster than I expected.
There were many things I needed to improve on, so I will accept them and use them as a lesson for the future.
I would definitely like to participate again next time! (I hope to win next time.)