We participated in the "Migration Competition 2017"!

My name is Teraoka and I am an infrastructure engineer

I recently participated in the "Migration Competition 2017" hosted by the MSP Association.
(MSPJ Migration Competition 2017 Winter / connpass)

I finished work early the day before and headed to Tokyo by Shinkansen... I was even able to do a little sightseeing.
I don't travel very often, so this felt like a mini-trip and I really enjoyed it!
...I forgot to take pictures, so there aren't any (but I was having a great time!).

■What about on the actual day?

I really had to use my brain. A lot. (I'll keep it a secret that I was racking my brain from the very beginning.)
There were a lot more things to consider than I expected.
The objective of this competition was to "migrate an existing system to a new environment," which
is easy to say but difficult to actually do...
As I'm still just a novice engineer, I personally learned a lot, so I'm glad it was a success!
Also, since it was a team activity, I'd like to take this opportunity to quietly thank my teammates again...
(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" that resembles
a request. It's certainly not something concrete; it's extremely vague.
Furthermore, there are no documents or anything like
that. Therefore, we need to ask questions and make suggestions regarding any unclear points.

- We would like a complete migration from the current environment to the new environment.
- We would like a report on the actions taken and the results.
- We would like to be notified when the system is shut down, as this is necessary.
- We would like an upgrade as it is an old environment that has been used for a long time. -
If possible, we would like the switch to be done in a way that does not affect users. - If possible
, we would appreciate it if there were documentation regarding the server.
- If possible, we would like to be able to take backups as we do not currently do any.
- If possible, we would like the system to be made redundant as the number of users will increase in the future.
- If possible, we would appreciate it if the information necessary for handing over to the new infrastructure engineer was compiled.

...I see. (
In my team,
we prioritized implementing the top four must-do items first, putting aside the "if possible" parts.
Also, since we were working under the assumption that no documentation remained,
we needed to document the configuration information of the new environment, etc. That was also quite a challenge.)

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

It all started with not knowing how to use Azure.
I'm familiar with AWS, but unfortunately, that's the source environment, so the new environment I'm building is entirely on Azure.
The same goes for migrating Redmine and the mail server.
I researched, tried, and solved each problem one by one. It was a valuable learning experience.

■What was the result of the competition?

I didn't win (definitely)

Summary

It was fun and I learned a lot.
It was a full-day competition, but the time went by surprisingly quickly.
There were many things I need to improve on, so I'll accept them gracefully and use them to my advantage in the future.
I definitely want to participate again next time! (I want to win a prize next time!)