Problem Statement
Remediation of client virtual infrastructure gaps by
- Inventory validation
- Upgrading /enhancing to the latest version of ESXi software
Client Challenge Statement
During an Infrastructure security audit, we identified gaps related to servers due to mismatch of VMware versions around infosec issues with an unpatched, unsupported version of ESXi
Due to differences in ESXi versions, manageability of the environment was difficult.
Effective utilisation of resources was not possible as there was a restriction in the interoperability due to mismatched version.
Environment health check-up was required as old hardware was causing issues.
Short Summary
Our Client is a global leader in software and services for billing, customer relationship management (CRM), operations support systems (OSS), and web portal and has around 20,000 employees that serve customers in more than 50 countries around the world.
The servers’ environment at client consists of 10,000 Unix Servers which were used for production, development and test environment. Most of these were virtual servers. The environment is hosted globally across multiple datacenters.
The client wanted to upgrade their virtualized environment (6.7 VCSA). They were expecting to align gaps in their infrastructure including old ESXi hosts. The goal was to upgrade those assets and align them in all systems including Inventory control and monitoring systems.
Softenger Methodology
The team did the analysis on the server inventory and bifurcated it into supported hardware and unsupported hardware
The unsupported hardware inventory was moved to the legacy environment
The supported server was upgraded to 6.7 VCSA
Coordination was done with server owners for downtime and upgrades. The movement was carried out in the agreed window.
Inventory update and documentation for each frame were refreshed and published as reference.
Outcome
The client had their virtualized environment (6.7 VCSA) upgraded
280+ ESXi physical servers were upgraded to comparable version/patch level (6.0 U3/6.5)
Resulting in:
Calibration in Environment
Improved business agility
Data protection
Discovered opportunities to increase computing efficiencies
This activity was completed in 90 days from the start of the project and was delivered on three monthly milestones.
