This page describes the RackWare RMM documents available and gives some guidance when using the RMM to perform migrations.



Main RMM Documents:

  • RMM Technical Overview and Best Practices
    This document describes the high-level planning process when using the RMM for migrations or Disaster Recovery.   It also explains some special considerations for different types of databases, and provides some best practices related to networking and Active Directory.
  • RMM Prerequisites and Operational Requirements Guide
    This guide provides information on the Prerequisites for the Origin/Source environment (i.e. the current production environment) the RMM itself, and the Target environment.   It includes instructions for setting up communication over an ssh session to the Linux and Windows source servers and describes the Anti-Virus exclusions needed on the source servers.    Some of the setup can be done even before the RMM is running. 
  • RMM GUI Operations guide – Gives a generic overview (not cloud specific) on RMM GUI and configuration needed for Migration/DR.    Includes the steps to follow when using the RMM for migrating servers or protecting servers (Disaster Recovery).
  • RMM Cloud Parameters Guide – This guide contains Cloud Specific information to gather and setup for Migration and DR,   There is a separate chapter for each cloud into which the RMM supports autoprovisioning servers.   For example, chapter 5 describes the GCP values needed in order to autoprovision servers into GCP. 
  • RMM Installation Guide  This guide describes the installation procedure and upgrade procedure for the Rackware Management Module (RMM) software, including the RMM licensing mechanism.  If you have already installed the RMM from a Marketplace listing, this manual will not be needed for your initial installation.   It will be useful if you ever need to upgrade your RMM.

 

Additional information:

 

  • RMM Bridge Server configuration (example) – This guide is to be used as reference to setup a Bridge Server and a GRE Tunnel, in cases where the Customer wants to retain the IP of ORIGIN Server on the Target VM’s.   Note that there is no software from RackWare running on an RMM Bridge Server - it is a standard linux server configured to act as an RMM Bridge Server. 
  • RMM Diagnostics Guide - This document describes the diagnostic tools built in to the RMM, and explains how to gather information when seeing an issue. 
  • RMM Backup and Selective File Restore - This document describes the current Backup and Selective File Restore capabilities of the RMM. RackWare’s backup and selective file restore solution allows an RMM user to use restore-points as a backup in case there is a need to roll-back a host (in either the production or target environment) to a specific point in time. For instance, if malware entered a host, the user may wish to roll that host back to a point in time before the malware infection occurred.  Additionally, a single file (or a group of files) from any of the images of a server can be restored to the server.

 


  • Link to RMM Migration Videos – VIdeos of using the RMM for Migration and/or DR in Google Cloud, which go through the basic steps and explain what is happening  behind the scenes are available at 

 

https://vimeo.com/showcase/9713727

pw:  R@ckW@re!

 

(To view the Videos - Please enter your Company Name, Email id, First Name & Last Name )



  • Recommended HIGH LEVEL Steps/Best Practices during Migration using RMM:

NOTE -  A very important pre-requisite, for both Migration and DR use cases), is to ensure that the ORIGIN and TARGET environments are ISOLATED in a way that the ORIGIN Production environment is NOT affected due to the provisioned Target coming online in the target environment.  The high-level workflow below remains the same regardless of the ORIGIN applications, or OS, or underlying Cloud/Hypervisor or the TARGET environment you are migrating to.

 

  1. Plan the migration effort in advance and deploy the architecture accordingly (RMM config, use of Bridge Server, which servers in which wave, timeline, Target environment, etc.)
  2. Install the RMM in the target cloud and verify it is up and running.  
    For Licensing, email the generated Preinstall file from the RMM to – Licensing@RackWareInc.com
  3. Gather information about the ORIGIN servers in scope.
  4. Prepare the ORIGIN servers to meet the Prerequisites
  5. Gather information about the target cloud environment (auto provisioning for Support Target environment), Prepare Target environment to meet Prerequisites OR Create and prepare the target servers in the target cloud (pre-provisioned targets).
  6. Prepare Waves of servers to migrate
  7. Use the RMM to sync the servers to the cloud, either by auto provisioning them, or using the pre-provisioned target servers.
  8. Initial verification of the servers in the target cloud.
  9. Perform one or more delta syncs from the ORIGIN environment to the servers in the target cloud to capture changes
     (i.e., any files/folders that had been modified or deleted since the start time of the previous sync) to the ORIGIN servers since the initial migration or previous sync was performed.
  10. About a day prior to scheduled Cutover time, perform a LAST minus ONE - DELTA SYNC - to approximate the time likely needed for the cutover
  11. Plan the Cutover activities
  12. Prior to the Cutover, Quiesce the applications/log out users, in a way there is not much I/O -> perform a cutover/final delta sync to the TARGET VM’s.