Closure Report
Project Summary
Within the EdWeb infrastructure, the varnish and memcache servers had already reached their operating system (CentOS 6) end of life. The move of the varnish servers to CentOS 7 was believed to be relatively straightforward, but the upgrade of the memcache servers required code changes and needed to be delivered as a project given the system's history of sensitivity to losing individual cache components. This project oversaw the necessary infrastructure upgrades to the varnish and memcache servers across the various environments.
Scope
The scope of this project included the following:
- Review cache server infrastructure
- Replace/update 18 memcache servers (2 x Dev, 4 x Test, 4 x Staging, 4 x Training, 4 x Live) in the EdWeb infrastructure
- Replace/update 16 memcache servers (4 x Test, 4 x Staging, 4 x Training, 4 x Live) in the EdWeb infrastructure
- Review bamboo plans and deployment documentation
- Update TAD and build documentation
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 40 days
Staff Usage Actual: 30? days
Staff Usage Variance: -25%
Other Resource Estimate: n/a
Other Resource Actual: n/a
Other Resource Variance: n/a
Outcome
Objectives & Deliverables
|
Priority |
Achieved? |
|
|
O1 To upgrade the operating system (across all relevant environments)on the current memcache servers within the EdWeb infrastructure |
|
|
|
D1. Upgraded memcache servers on the Dev, Test, Staging, Training and Live EWeb environments |
Must Have |
Yes |
| D2. Upgraded varnish servers on the Test, Staging, Training and Live EWeb environments | Must Have | Yes |
|
O2 To update all relevant technical and support documentation |
||
| D2. Updated architecture and an updated Technical Architecture Document (TAD) | Must Have | Yes |
| D3. Updated build documentation | Must Have | Yes |
| D4. An updated Bamboo plan | Must Have | Yes |
|
D5. Updated deployment documentation |
Must Have | Yes |
Explanation for Variance
-
Effort
There is some variance to report in terms of effort. A three point estimate carried out at the planning stage suggested a total, for Applications, of 40 days and the final figure is 30 days. The reason for the lower figure is simply that the estimates for the server builds proved to be on the 'generous' side and the development team did a great job in getting these built more efficiently than anticipated.
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Time
There is little variance in this respect. The eventual go-live date was six days later than that originally planned but this was within the tolerance of the project and did not cause any problems for anyone involved. The closure report has been delayed by a few weeks because of sickness absence, something that cannot be avoided.
-
Scope
No major differences here either. The stated scope covered the replacement of the varnish and memcache servers across each of the environments, and that is what was achieved.
Key Learning Points
No explicit lessons learned were passed on.
Outstanding Issues
There are no reported issues.