Description of Botany Web Hosting Service (for details please see the botaweb_SLA_fifth_version)
a) A single virtual server has been purchased from UBC IT VSS, and has been configured as Web server for this service.
b) This service is a web hosting service for HTML and PHP based websites. There is no database support (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL or FileMaker) built into this service. We do not support Perl based websites. This server is not a designated file transfer server therefore large file transfers are discouraged. We do not provide hosting service for any Content Management System such as WordPress and Drupal.
c) The permanent IP address for this server is 142.103.131.81. All websites hosted by default will have the http://www3.botany.ubc.ca/username URL. It is possible to point other domain names to this server, but it will be the user’s interest to optionally obtain another domain name. Botany IT staff can set up Virtual Server resolution once the user points the domain name to this server.
d) By default, all websites are limited to 1GB of space and 5000 file and folder nodes. The Botany IT manager may approve resource requests within a 2GB space and 10,000 file and folder nodes limit on a case by case basis. Otherwise, the request must be approved by the Botany IT Advisory Board;
e) HTTP access to all hosted websites will be through TCP port 80. Only SFTP access to TCP port 22 is allowed for uploading data to your website. File system access is limited to the user’s home folder. User cannot connect through SSH or SCP.
f) Password protection for HTTP access to a website is available but not turned on by default;
g) PHP functionality is limited for security reasons. Please contact Botany IT staff for details;
h) Key based authentication for SFTP access is available but the users are responsible to mount the public keys under their home folders. Please contact Botany IT staffs for details.
i) HTTP access will be open to all IP addresses.
j) SFTP access will be open to all UBC IP address ranges. Users need turn on UBC myVPN connection first if connect to this server from external IP address (eg. Home)
k) As a security measure, accounts will be locked out if there are five failed passwords or key attempts. To protect this server from Denial of Service Attack, Maximum 20 HTTP and 4 SFTP concurrent sessions are allowed from a single IP.
Quick access instruction
1. You need a SFTP client side application to upload data to the new server. For PC user, I suggest WinSCP, which you can download from http://winscp.net ; for Mac user, I suggest Fugu, which you can download from http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/ . The web server name is www3.botany.ubc.ca. You can also use FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/ )or Cyberduck (https://cyberduck.io/?l=en ).
2. All file names are case sensitive. “abc.jpg”, “abc.JPG” and “Abc.jpg” point to different files.
3. All your website contents are under a subfolder named “www”. You shouldn’t rename this folder or save your web site outside of this folder.
4. For enhanced security, we disabled your shell so you cannot connect to this server through SSH client such as putty. As a side effect, you cannot change your password yourself. Sorry for this inconvenience. Please contact Botany IT if you want to change your password.
5. Please keep your website neat and don’t dump too much data into our web server. You shouldn’t use our web server as network files sever for saving or transferring large files. If you need some network space, please let me know. We have an file sharing server for all faculty members. Your web space limit is 1GB.
6. Our new server now supports PHP scripting language if you want to make a dynamic website. MySQL database support is also available. Please send me an email for details if you want to use it.
7. Due to heavy malicious access volume to our web server, I decide to hide it behind a firewall box from the dangerous outside world. You won’t notice any change if you simply view your web pages or update your website from any Botany IP address. But if you try to upload updates from outside of Botany, you will need to tell me your IP address (if you are using a static IP address) or access through UBC VPN connection (which require an UBC CWL account). For more information of UBC VPN connection, please see http://www.it.ubc.ca/service_catalogue/information_security/security/VPN.html . For how to get a CWL account if you still don’t have one, please see http://www.it.ubc.ca/cwl/homelink.shtml .