U LT I M A T E G U I D E T O

Data Center
Decommissioning
 Welcome to the Exit Technologies’ Ultimate Guide to Data Center

Decommissioning & Checklist. Nearly all critical operations, from

healthcare to aviation, rescue, military, and many other life or death

fields find checklists invaluable. With a checklist, the flight crew at the

airport makes less mistakes, and lives are safer for it. Checklists are

universally helpful.

With that being said, data center decommissioning projects are some of

the most granular, delicate, and task-dense projects, period. To save

other organizations from many of the heartbreaking mistakes we have

seen over the years with decom projects, we have compiled a reference

checklist for the procedure of a data center decommissioning.

While no two data center decommissions will be the same, in each phase

of your project you may find it helpful to refer back to this checklist for

peace of mind and direction. We also highly recommend that you use

this document as a reference for your own team as you compile a more

personalized decom checklist for your organization’s unique

environment.

Although many of these steps are only critical in the context of

beginning a data center migration, it still serves as a thorough and

helpful walk through for any data center decommissioning operation.

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 STA G E 1 :
Planning
and Discovery
Identify and engage all relevant stakeholders
and decision makers.
Listing them out ahead of time and defining their stake in the project

will ease the rest of the project as lines of communication and inquiry

are opened and specific responsibilities are assigned.

Assign a project manager.

If no managers or executives in-house have extensive experience with data

center decommissions, it is typical to assign an external expert as the project

manager. It is also not uncommon to utilize a logistics company in addition to an

external project manager to act as an extension of the expert. Especially if the

in-house staff is insufficient to handle the full decommission project alone.

Develop a budget.
When using in-house laborers or hiring contractors, a decommission project

typically exceeds the initial budget by a significant margin. When utilizing an

external service or an IT asset disposition (ITAD)/logistics partner, the

decommission itself may be profitable depending on the value of your

equipment and its destination. When budgeting, it helps to have a qualified

auditor provide a valuation of your hardware and the realistic estimate of

potential value recovery from it.

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 Establish an estimated timetable.
If you ask a data center migration consultant how often projects get delayed, it’s

not uncommon to hear a groaned reply. The fact is, it is almost impossible to

account for every contingency. The less prepared and less organized the

organization, the more likely that delays will occur. This is why the planning and

discovery phases are so crucial: if everybody knows the environment like the back

of their hand and there’s no guesswork about who’s doing what, the project

should proceed fairly smoothly.

Create a detailed scope of work for all processes,

safety procedures, stages of removal/demolition.
Who’s doing what and where, and most importantly: how? Are the contractors

unplugging everything? Are the system admins? Are the engineers? Is everyone

wearing insulated equipment? Or just those in charge of working with live lines?

Are you removing all the servers and relevant hardware before destroying all of

the base infrastructure? You'll need to identify and answer questions like this and

more to ensure the process remains consistent and fluid.

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 Create a general contact info list for all team members
to facilitate communication on any issues that may
arise, including vendor contacts such as ISPs.
Regardless of how your organization handles communications, during a critical

project like this, the last thing you want is for the technician who found a critical error

at go-time to be unable to contact the relevant project manager.

For live decommissions (removing production

equipment from the network), schedule the
decommission for off-hours with a buffer for
unexpected circumstances that may arise.
This is more for a data center migration scenario, but nonetheless, if coming off

the network unexpectedly should prove problematic for another data center that

is connected to the currently decommissioning one, then it’s probably a good

idea to schedule the final steps for after hours.

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 NETWORK TOOLS DISCOVERY
Choose the optimal network discovery tool:
• For flat networks, agent-less discovery tools are pragmatic and provide comprehensive data.
• For heavily virtualized environments, NetFlow enabled tools with comprehensive network

gear recognition are more appropriate than application-centric tools.

Agent-less discovery tools are impeccable when they can navigate through your entire

network, but a heavily virtualized environment that is very segmented and built from

the ground up upon VMware NSX will simply not be practical for an agent-less

discovery tool. Depending on how your network grants access, it may take some trial

and error before you can configure a tool to truly capture your network environment.

Don’t hesitate to trial multiple discovery tools in the

discovery phase.
There are many netflow analyzers on the market, and depending on how

micro-segmented your environment is, you may find specific tools that worked for other

data centers are simply not a match for your environment.

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 Proprietary databases, or 3rd-party hosted tools,
may not give you access to raw data. Ensure that any
tool used will give you access to the raw data so that
you may gain intelligence that is meaningful to your
specific environment.
Often times, doing in-house data analytics and segmenting the data provided by

network tools allows you to derive insights that a tool would never be able to find.

Cross-referencing multiple segmented sets of data may lead to discovering errors

that neither the tool nor existing data or even physical discovery would have

uncovered.

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 PHYSICAL DISCOVERY
Conduct a physical audit and hold specialists
accountable to double-verify all inputs.
Human error is a fact of life; everybody makes mistakes. By having every physical audit

item double-verified by other individuals or groups, the entire team is held accountable

to make sure no stone is left unturned. For smaller operations or projects with a more

manageable volume of hardware to decommission, this may be excessive. However, it is

rare for a decommission project to not find unexpected discrepancies between the

physical audit, the software discovery audit, and the existing CMDB/asset list. If several

major discrepancies are uncovered, you may want to reevaluate the flow of verification

before moving further, as continuing with a flawed workflow may only serve to tangle the

web of knowns and unknowns even further.

Compile a hardware map from the physical review and

relate that map back to your applications and data
Now that you have a tangible map that was double-verified physically, cross-reference

it with what you already have. The number of mismatches may surprise you. At this

point you may find it unimportant from a cost benefit analysis to glean a more

accurate picture of your environment depending on your organization’s goals,

budgets, and timetables. Regardless, most organizations will find it invaluable to

conduct an expert review of all the operations conducted thus far.

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 EXPERT REVIEW
Review existing CMDBs, discovery tool outputs, and physical audits with qualified

experts such as:

• Developers

• Operators

• Users

• Management
• For any expertise gaps, rely on external decommissioning/migration experts.

Holding a final meeting of the minds before finalizing an asset map is imperative.

The differing levels of granularity serve to cover holes in the new map. Just as the

data center operator may be the only one who notices a power supply issue with a

row of servers, the network operations manager may be the only one who notices

that one section of the environment has turned up issues in the asset-list wherever

a micro-segmentation protocol was implemented.

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 UPDATED ASSET MAP
Finalize an updated environment map, including dependencies where relevant for live

decommissions, for all of the following elements:

• Software

• Servers

• Storage systems

• VMs

• Network equipment

• Air and cooling equipment

• Power equipment

• Cabling

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 FINAL PLANNING
• Create an implementation plan which lists out all actions and responsibilities

for project members.

• Create a master set of go/no-go criteria with your stakeholders to ensure

that all affected parties can weigh in on initiation of the decommissioning

tasks. Hold a formal go/no-go meeting on the day of the decom and abort if

appropriate risks are raised.

• For live decommissioning projects, contact end users about potential

downtime to limit frustration in case of errors.

• Commission any tools or equipment needed for physical logistics:

o Fork lifts

o Drive shredders/ degaussers.

o Pallets and crating for servers.

o Polyethylene foam for packing.

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 Most are aware that you should not use standard packing materials. Styrofoam,

bubble wrap, etc will do nothing to protect servers. And standard shipping boxes are

insufficient. There are several companies such as Pelican and Cases2Go which create

specialized rack mount cases if you plan to migrate your decommissioned equipment.

If you are utilizing an ITAD company to manage the logistics and disposition, they will

likely be able to send you a custom fit foam insert package to protect those servers

which still have value in transit.

Hoists, Conveyors, Trucks, & Tip guards.

It goes without saying that servers can and have caused serious, serious harm to

those in the industry. Always aim to use forklifts, hoists, conveyors, anchors, or any

other manner of equipment to move servers without putting yourself under physical

strain or in the line of a falling rack when possible.

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 Additional Final Tips:
• Conduct background checks on temporary personnel – you don’t want any data or

hardware disappearing!

• Use asset tags to denote future location, personnel responsibilities and planned

processes. This is mostly only applicable to data center migrations, but even in a simple

decom and disposition project, some lots may be going to different buyers. You don’t

want to send your buyers the wrong sets of equipment.

• Create a final log of all equipment that is to be decommissioned.

• Determine final designation for sorting all hardware assets such as: Re-purpose, Resale,

and Recycle.
• Schedule the cancellation of any vendor maintenance contracts associated with

servers or software that are not being migrated.

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 STA G E 2 :
Decommissioning
Stage
• For live environments in migration scenarios, run tests/simulations on all

backups and/or a Disaster recovery test to ensure complete functionality.

• Create a comprehensive backup just before decommissioning.

• Additionally, complete a final verification of the new backup.

• If relevant, complete data erasure inside the racks with data erasure software.
• Disconnect equipment from the network. Remove from ACLs, subnets, and

firewalls.

• Cut power to all equipment that’s being decommissioned.

• Pull all rack hardware.

• Consider investing tip guards if moving racks extensively.

• If drives have not been erased, shred or degauss remaining storage media.
• Verify that all documentation for the erasure/destruction of your data has been

accounted for.

• Fulfill any security policy requirements and be sure to leave a comprehensive

audit trail.

• Complete rack tear-down.

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 STA G E 3 :
Disposition
1. Complete hardware palletization and packing.
2. Ensure that servers and other hardware slated for reuse are crated with cut-

to-fit polyethylene foam; again- standard freight shipping is insufficient.

3. Correspond with the financial department so that servers/ fixed assets are

taken off the books and software licenses are accounted for.

4. Identify recycling vendor or downstream site for recyclable materials. The last

thing you want is hardware that is directly traceable to you on the cover of

GreenPeace’s new expose on the polluting dangers of data centers.

5. Coordinate with other departments to transition any hardware slated for re-

purposed use. You may find it helpful to perform a cost-benefit analysis with

your ITAD partner, if you have one. Together, you can determine whether

liquidating current assets and purchasing new equipment is actually more cost

effective in the long run before you go through the trouble of moving and re-

purposing your equipment elsewhere within the organization. For example,

even in a long term cold storage situation, you may find that the labor costs

involved exceed the cost of simply acquiring very low tier storage equipment

elsewhere and implementing directly.

6. Celebrate, because your decommission is complete!

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 As you move throughout your decommission project, don’t hesitate to refer back to this

checklist periodically as a reference for avoiding surprises. Additionally, this checklist is

not going to have every single contingency for every single data center accounted for. This

checklist is designed to be the framework for your organization to design and finalize your

own personalized, complete, line-by-line action plan for your decommission project.

Feel free to edit it, delete sections which aren’t relevant, and consult other sources to

ensure that you’ve compiled the perfect checklist for your organization before you commit

to your project. Given the increasingly rigorous data protection regulations and

compliance mazes that organizations much contend with in recent years, a checklist of this

kind serves as a boon to organizations everywhere.

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 However, please do not use this checklist as the all-encompassing, strict instruction

manual for your own decommission. Think of it more as a friendly, informative, and base-

line essentials as a guide to put you on the right track. Your environment may have

factors which are not even public knowledge that need to be accounted for. While we have

considerable experience with decommissioning projects across various industries, every

project is different, and has different requirements which must be accounted for in a

checklist by the organization itself.

It is our hope here at Exit Technologies that your project goes as smoothly as possible. If

you have need of a family-owned ITAD partner who has vast experience in successful data

center decommissions, and a passion for it, we would be happy to connect and help.

Given the frequency of data leaks, data center controversies, and the sheer impact which

mistakes in these contexts can have, it is our fervent mission to help other organizations

prevent those mistakes that so many other companies have made in the past.

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 Despite the unfortunate history of the industry we're in, we have found that many

organizations enjoy data center decommissions as a profit center where they were

expecting heavy expenses.

If you have any questions about how partnering with an ITAD corporation can

streamline the decommissioning process and provide revenues where otherwise a

decommission project might bring net expenses, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We

provide consultation and asset valuations free of charge.

If you'd like to speak

with us about how we
can help you with
your data center
decommission,
please contact us for
more information!
exittechnologies.com
(239) 596-2254

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