Moving all your data, 9TB edition

GitLab B.V.'s infrastructure upgrade involved migrating gitlab.com from dedicated hardware to AWS while overcoming significant challenges, notably transferring a 9TB filesystem with minimal downtime. The migration utilized DRBD for real-time data synchronization, allowing continued service availability. DRBD's virtual hard drive system, previously used to safeguard against hardware failure, was repurposed for the move, enabling continuous data updates without disrupting service. Initial attempts at data transfer were slow, prompting a switch to 'truck-based replication,' a method that involved taking a snapshot and manually transporting the data over the network. This approach, combined with DRBD's metadata export/import features, ultimately allowed the migration to complete successfully in three weeks, with only 20 minutes of total downtime. Upon completion, the transition to AWS resulted in improved responsiveness for gitlab.com, highlighting the effectiveness of the migration strategy despite its complexities and the operational risks involved.

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