Frequently Asked Questions

The service's technology infrastructure includes:

• Apache web server (2.4.62)
• PHP scripting (8.1.27)
• MySQL database server (8.0.39)
• phpMyAdmin

Features of this service include:

• Secure FTP access
• Seemless integration into UH webspace
• Weekly backups

For those seeking to run a specific web application, and need to verify if our web service meets the application's minimum technical specifications:

• 160MB memory limit
• 5MB default upload limit (expandable to 10MB)
• 1GB web quota *
• 250MB database quota *

1. Clearly defined project Your project must be clearly defined and relevant to the University community and have lasting value. General development, course-related work, and other non-business related work is not supported.
   
   
   • Please check with your departmental/college IT staff/group if you need general development space.
   • Laulima is the ITS supported learning management system for course-related work.
     • https://laulima.hawaii.edu
2. Part of an officially recognized UH unit Your department or staff office must be officially recognized by the University. Temporary organizations, non-registered RIOs, and non-University groups may not apply.
3. Executive sponsor An executive sponsor must approve your request for participation. For departmental websites, the executive sponsor would be the a dean, director, department chair, a senior office administrator or principal investigator.
4. UH Username Only University faculty or staff may request to participate in this service. We require a personal UH Username to validate this affiliation. Departmental and organizational UH Usernames are not allowed under this service.
5. In-House PHP and MySQL expertise For our PHP/MySQL web hosting service, you must have someone on your staff who can develop with PHP and MySQL. This service provides no support for learning PHP or MySQL and cannot respond to issues resulting from a lack of expertise. For this reason, we do not accept units without any in-house experience.
   
   If your website is compromised the first time for failure to maintain your code, your website will be quarantined (pulled from public viewing) and you will be issued a first warning. A second violation will result in a ban from UH Hosting Website Services for a 6-month period. A third violation will result in a permanent ban from the UH Hosting Website Service.

6. Intended deployment within UH web space Your website URL must be part of the hawaii.edu name space.
7. Commercial applications Commercial applications are allowed only for official UH business. Departments must comply with all university policies and procedures regarding handling of sensitive information such as credit card numbers, personally identifiable information (PII) and PCI compliance. Policies/procedures include, but not limited to:
   
   EP 2.214 - Institutional Data Classification Categories and Information Security Guidelines
   http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.214
   
   EP 2.215 - Institutional Data Governance
   http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.215
   
   AP 8.710 - Credit Card Administration
   http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ap8.710
8. No sensitive data We currently do not allow the development of applications that store secure data classified as sensitive or regulated below.
   
   

   Public Data	Protected Data
   Public (No Risk)	Restricted (Low Risk)	Sensitive (Medium Risk)	Regulated (High Risk)
   No privacy considerations.	Data used internally within the UH community but not released to external parties without a contract or memorandum of agreement.	Data subject to privacy considerations.	Highly sensitive data that is subject to state breach notification requirements, financial fines, or other penalties.
   Definition: Institutional Data where access is not restricted and is subject to open records requests	Definition: Institutional Data used for UH business only. Restricted data will not be distributed to external parties except under the terms of a written memorandum of agreement or contract. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.	Definition: Institutional Data subject to privacy or security considerations or any Institutional Data not designated as public, restricted, or regulated. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.	Definition: Institutional Data where inadvertent disclosure or inappropriate access requires a breach notification in accordance with HRS §487N or is subject to financial fines. Social Security Number (SSN) and personal financial information fall within this category. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.

   
   Click here to view examples of data/information by category [UH Login Required]
9. Must be accessible Our Service Level Agreement (SLA) terms have changed to include a General Commitment to Accessibility statement
   
   
   https://www.hawaii.edu/its/webservice/practice.html#Service
   
   that reflects what is stated in the University's Executive Policy E2.210.
   The policy states that all web content produced by the University should be in compliance with Federal Section 508 guidelines by meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA criteria as outlined at http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.210. Therefore, all new web content published by the University offices should be fully compliant with Section 508 guidelines. Existing content should be checked for compliance, and remediated on a prioritized basis in accordance with time and resource availability. Any legal mandate may obligate remediation on a specified timeline.
   
   Please refer to the UH Guidelines for Accessible Technology and Digital Media at http://www.hawaii.edu/access/uhguidelines.html and to Information on Website Accessibility at http://hawaii.edu/access/webaccess.html, for more information on how to make your web content accessible.