Before we touch anything we build the record. Every asset is captured with make, model and serial using a handheld barcode scanner, and the list is reconciled against whatever inventory you already hold, which in our experience is rarely a perfect match, and the variances are worth knowing about before move night. We then produce rack elevations, a cable trace and a patching schedule, and label the hardware and the cabling to your naming convention. For sites we have not seen we will do a full site survey, or at the very minimum ask for a walk through video and detailed photographs with the rack elevations. It is dull work and it is the reason the actual move goes quietly.
A LINX 600kg 36u router is not a two man lift and never was. We use our own Chassis Lift and Slide System for anything going in or out of a rack, from a 20kg server up to a 400kg chassis, positioned anywhere from about 12.5cm off the floor to nearly 2 metres, and we have moved a live MRV chassis on dual electric lifting tables without powering it down. Transport is in 19 inch shock mount flight cases, or in our own split trunks which break down to the base so the chassis slides straight off the lift. Hydraulic lifters take up to 1800kg between them for the really awkward items. Everything is strapped to E-track with shoring poles.
Most server relocation happens between 8pm Friday and 6am Monday, and we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year because that is the nature of it. If the kit is crossing into Europe our own in-house customs agent raises the entries, but you should know that European customs offices generally close at 4pm and are shut all weekend, and a T1 transit can take an hour or the whole day depending on the office. We plan around it. At the end you get the reconciled serial list, the patching schedule as built, the chain of custody record, proof of delivery and photographs. If the old estate is being retired we shred the drives and issue a certificate of destruction.
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