Conversion of a legacy version control infrastructure into a museum environment

Project Challenge

Due to acquisition customer inherited a large version control environment based on IBM Rational ClearCase©. The total amount of design data was nearly 10 TB split into ~2,000 repositories, in some cases with a 15+ year history and a high degree of geographical distribution. The infrastructure was mainly based on physical Sun Microsystems servers. Although most of the projects already ended the customer was still facing maintenance obligations for the designs (10 or more years after tape-out). The decision was taken not to migrate the legacy projects into a new environment (SVN or Git) but to consolidate the data into a central so called "museum" that allow immediate but  limited access by designers on an ad-hoc base to fulfil the maintenance requirements. Some of the sites involved have been running the legacy instances for a while without a designated administrator.

Solution Provided

• Analysis of the different sites and the replication scenarios of the repositories.
• Installation and configuration of a new museum environment based on virtual Linux servers.
• Support the ramp up of a VDI based infrastructure for designers to work on Linux or Windows clients.
• Consolidate the replicated data set into the museum environment in a controlled and site-by-site approach.
• Support the adjustment of connected environments (for example build environments for projects) to work with the museum infrastructure.
• Provide on-going support for the museum environment and end-users during and after the consolidation.

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