Core Switch swap-out - Project Management Question

[StillMaKiniT]

I will be swapping out an old core switch, 3750 G  for a new one a 3850 G.  The Team Lead want's me to put together a Project Management document outlining everything that will be done, step-by-step. Previously he reviewed my configs and said that they were incorrect: he was wrong.  I'm getting T-boned because I returned from a stroke I had last year and has told me that, "nobody coming back from something like that be trusted again.".  Simply put, the guy is a bigot, but he's the, "Team Lead."  I've put together a Project Management Plan as asked that he say's is just eye candy, (This from a person that has admitted to NEVER configured a Firewall, Router or Switch.)  Everything covered from Team Members, Scope, Deliverables all the way down to impacted systems and customers is covered as well.  But he tosses it back saying, its just, "Eye Candy."  When asked what it is missing, and other info, I get silence.  It's a nightmare. Any templates to compare my PM document against?  The actual one that I've utilized is a template, but never good enough.  Normally just a port by port migration.  Not good-enough.                  

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

can you post the document you have put together ?

Good luck with your health.

[marce1000]

 - Besides other reply , I often advice to execute such a project with potential great impact in cooperation with a re-seller. This relaxes the burden on individual network managers working for the company and will give you a better business representation as to way the project was undertaken.

 M.

[paul driver]

Hello
Sorry to hear you have boss is like that, sounds like he doesn’t know what he is doing himself.
If it’s a core migration plan you are looking for then this is something we can assist you
Migrations like these do need a procedure more so if you want to minimize outage time to your network and users, but even with a big bang approach by transferring all connections at the same time and incurring outage you still need have a deterministic approach to the change.
Can you share some details of the exiting setup, what is the core switch currently servicing, is it running a dynamic or static routing, what is it connecting to, also post a topology diagram of you network is applicable?

A basic migration plan would involve the following:

Planned migration
Enables you to transfer routing from old to new core piecemeal thus testing connectivity for each routed vlan you migrate before proceeding on another area of you network especially in large LAN environments.

1 -Backup old core switch

2 -Build up new core switch ( same configuration from all old, including SVI’s, trunks, port-channels, mgt etc.) but have all SVIs disabled on new core

3 -Create a layer 2 trunk interconnection between old/new core switch, Make sure vtp database has populated new core with exiting vlans of old core.

4 -Migrate all l2interconnects off old core on to new core ( routing is STILL on old core)
Create an additional interconnection between old/new core but at L3 ( this will be for new core to take on the routing of old core)

5 -Shutdown each old core SVIs one by one so you can than enable them one bu one on the  new Core (should experience slight outage to users as SVIs and routing is established and arp table is populate and refreshed -this can be negated by using the mac address of each svi from old core and putting it on the new core related svi

6- relocate any wan connection

7 - shutdown old core

Big Bang approach
1 -Backup old core switch

2 -Build up new core switch ( same configuration from all old, including SVI’s, trunks, port-channels, mgt etc.) but have all SVIs enabled on new core

3 -Make sure vtp database of new core has populated been with exiting vlans of old core

4 -Migrate all connections from old core to new core (should experience outage to users as SVIs and routing is established and arp table is populate and refreshed -this can be negated by using the mac address of each svi from old core and putting it on the new core related svi)

5 -Leave old active in case you need to backout and it should as simple as relocatin all connections back over to old core switch.