General Overview

The Enterprise Web Hosting Group, a division of Information Technology @ Johns Hopkins (IT@JH), is primarily responsible for very large scale computing solutions for the entire Johns Hopkins Institution.  Areas of responsibility include:

• Web server management
• Content design for Inter- and Intranet front door servers
• Institution Wide Web Searching
• DNS requests
• Akamai Video Streaming
• Web Content Management System

Enterprise Web Hosting servers are intended to host Web sites for departments or organizations affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Institutions.  They are not intended to host personal sites.  Many Web based applications require devoted servers and specialized software that are not appropriate for a shared hosting environment.  Small, client-developed Web-based applications are supported.  Enterprise Web Hosting provides managed server space and does not create, author, program, or maintain the Web sites hosted on its servers.

Eligibility

Enterprise Web Hosting Services are eligible to all Johns Hopkins Faculty, Staff, and Students and are free of charge with proof of affiliation and an explanation of the project clearly stating its relationship with Johns Hopkins.  The Enterprise Web Hosting resources are not intended for personal Web solutions.  If disk space requirements exceed the standard allotment, payment may be required on a case by case basis.

Application Process

A Web-based application process is currently being developed.  In the meantime, send your request t webhosting@jhu.edu or  webhosting@jhmi.edu.  Please include the names of at least two contact persons for the site.  Include a valid phone number, email address, and JHED LID for each Hopkins student, faculty, or staff member that will serve as official contacts for the site, as well as an explanation of the project and any affiliated information, i.e. Departmental Web site, etc.

Getting Started

The Enterprise Web Hosting group manages multiple hosting servers, each with its own policies.  Before submitting a request, carefully consider what resources will be required to fulfill the needs of the site/application being developed.  Please consider the following Web Hosting Policies before submitting your request:

General Server Policies

1. Determine which programming language will need to be supported.  ASP, Cold Fusion, PHP, Perl, Plain HTML are available.
2. Access will only be provided for required resources.  It is the decision of the Web Hosting Group to determine which resource is best suited for the users need.
3. The Web Hosting Group reserves the right to restrict access to resources based on the user’s classification.
4. In accordance with Johns Hopkins Medicine Administration, all Web sites using the Johns Hopkins Medicine name should be hosted by the Web Center, a division of the Office of Corporate Communications.  NOTE:  Refer to the letter sent by Dr. Edward Miller, Dean, School of Medicine and Ronald Peterson, President, Johns Hopkins Hospital.
5. Information stored on Enterprise Web Hosting servers is backed regularly for disaster recovery purposes. However, individual file or Website restores will not be performed.  For example, if a disk drive fails on the server, all of the Web sites stored on that drive would be restored from tape, but if an account holder accidentally deletes files from the server, a restore would not be performed.  The account holder should maintain a master copy of all files off-line from the servers and be prepared to restore from that copy if mistakes occur when updating the Web site.
6. Additional software will not be installed on Hosting Servers in order to support a user’s application.  Users are limited to using the software currently installed on the server.  This includes the installation of Custom Components.
7. If a site requires SSL support, users will have to default to an existing Web site, in which case, a virtual directory can be set up under an existing name.  Note:  This does not exclude a user from setting up a site with its own name.  It only dictates that the portion of the site that SSL is enabled will need to fall under one of the existing server’s name.
8. If a site requires a separate DNS name, a request must be to hostmaster@jhu.edu or by using the DNS Request Tool at www.it.jhu.edu/webhosting/dnsreqs.html

Cold Fusion Servers

1. The Enterprise Hosting servers are running Cold Fusion MX 6.1.  Any Web site that will be moved onto these servers must be compatible with this version of Cold Fusion.
2. All Cold Fusion pages must be tested thoroughly in a test environment before being moved onto a production server.  There will be no Cold Fusion development of any kind performed on any production servers.
3. Microsoft Access databases will not be allowed on production Cold Fusion servers.  Web Hosting will provide a SQL database on a Microsoft SQL server if one is required for an application. 
4. Verity Collections on Cold Fusion applications will not be permitted.  The Web Hosting Group encourages the use of the Enterprise Search Engine for users interested in implementing search capability.  For more information on the Enterprise Search Engine, contact webhosting@jhu.edu.
5. Sandbox security is implemented on all Cold Fusion servers, and users are not permitted to use the following extensions:
   
   CfCollection, CfDirectory, CfExecute, CfFile, CfIndex, CfLog, CfObject, CfObjectCache, CfRegistry, CfSchedule, CfSearch, CreateObject, DirectoryExists, ExpandPath, FileExists
6. The Web Hosting Group reserves the right to take any site offline without notice that appears to be preventing the server from operating smoothly.  Users will be notified of the problem, and a member of the Web Hosting Group will assist in the repair of the effected resource.

ASP Pages

1. The Enterprise Hosting servers support ASP.net.
2. All ASP pages must be tested thoroughly in a test environment before being moved onto a production server.  There will be no ASP development of any kind performed on any production servers.
3. Microsoft Access databases will not be allowed on production ASP servers.  Web Hosting will provide a SQL database on a Microsoft SQL server if one is required for an application. 
   
   ASP.net runs as an unprivileged account and Access databases will not work without extra configuration.  Therefore, please do not attempt to load an Access database using ASP.net.
   
4. The Web Hosting Group reserves the right to take any site offline without notice that appears to be preventing the Server from operating smoothly.  Users will be notified of the problem, and a member of the Web Hosting Group will assist in the repair of the effected resource.

HTML Pages

1. HTML pages generally do not cause problems with the smooth operation of a hosting server.  Users are permitted to develop and maintain HTML pages without involving a representative from Web Hosting.  However, using clean and appropriate HTML code is encouraged, and all pages should be tested before moving to the production server.

PHP and CGI

1. PHP, Perl, of Shell Script functionality is available on the Enterprise Hosting servers and will be allotted based on the needs of a specific user.  While every effort is made to create a functional and useful server, no guarantee is made that a server will have every option and module compiled into the interpreter.  This is particularly true of PHP.
2. Users are responsible for generating code that performs as required and that does not adversely affect other accounts on the server.

MySQL Databases

1. If required, one MySQL database can be created for each account on Webhost5.
2. The Webmaster for each site is responsible for maintaining the database once it has been created.  The Web Hosting Group does not support individual databases except to maintain a reliable and useful database engine.
3. In the event that a poorly formed query causes an issue on the server, every effort will be made to find the owner of the code, after which time the offending code will be disabled.

Which Server is Right for Me?

Web Hosting Home

Akamai Video Streaming

DNS Requests

Useful DNS Facts

Network Time Protocol

JHARS Step by Step Instructions

Content Management System

Hosting Policies

Contract Systems Administration

Up-to-Date Server

Personal Webspace

Web Searching