Virtualization is quick, decommissioning takes forever

One of the problems with vmware is the aspect of decommissioning. By this I mean, that once the original virtualization issues have been overcome, the virtualization process can be quite rapid, you might find that you can virtualize systems in hours, leaving redundant physical servers powered on, using power waiting for their time to be decommissioned.

With this in mind, for large scale virtualization projects do you need a decommissioning team? A networks guy, a windows/unix guy, middleware, database and hardware guy, with someone that tells all what to do, raises all the changes/paperwork and chases everything through?

Go to any large investment bank, and you’ll find that the typical decommissioning process takes weeks if not months, so you might virtualize the box in January, but not get the box off and out the door until March, this is even more so if there isn’t someone actively chasing the calls, making sure that as soon as wintel get the call, they erase the box, and close the task for the hardware team to remove it.

It might not seem that important, but say you’re virtualizing development/staging, and it comprises some 800 servers, on to either blade servers or large rack mount servers. That’s 800 servers all drawing power, generating heat and taking up valuable datacenter space, the sooner you can get them out the door the better. Obviously a process has to be followed, due diligence followed to minimize risk to the business/business lines involved, but proceeding efficiently and effectively is the way forward, to have someone pushing the calls forward is a necessary and important aspect of the virtualization process.

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