Education IT Server Policy

Please note that the College of Education does not have a dedicated server administrator!  So for the sake of fulfilling our obligation to maintain the Education IT infrastructure, we are unable to accept any new server responsibilities.  ITaP can provide server space by subscription and the EdIT team would be more that happy to assist you in contact ITaP to acquire their services.  Thank you for your understanding our situation.  If existing COE resources cannot meet your need, we will do all we can to help you locate services to meet your need. Below are some thoughts and ideas related to this subject.

• Need a server?  Check with ITaP first.
• Who should purchase a server?
• When should server funding and staffing issues be considered for a grant?
• Who is responsible for purchasing a server for my grant?
• Who is responsible for hiring staff to maintain my server?
• Who is responsible for ensuring security updates are installed on my server?
• Who is responsible for backing up my server?
• Who is liable if my grant server is hacked and used for illegal purposes?
• What COE servers are already available for my grant to use?
• Can I add a domain name to an COE departmental server?
• Can I purchase and install application software on a departmental server and have multiple people run the software from the server?
• What COE servers are available for my personal faculty/staff web site?
• What services can Education IT provide to my grant project?

• Need a server?  Check with ITaP first.
  • As a general rule, anyone who thinks they may need their own dedicated server should contact ITaP to see if ITaP can accommodate the need.  ITaP has many server resources that can be used for academic research and projects. 
    
    The ITaP Infrastructure Group has a Request for Services Form that can be found here.
    
    Someone in ITaP may already be running the server application you need, so check with the Teaching and Learning Technologies group (TLT) and the Instructional Development Center (IDC).
    
    Also, please consult the EdIT Grant Proposal Pre-Submission Technology Questionnaire.
           
• Who should fund a server?
  • If a PI is conceptualizing a long term project that involves the use of proprietary Internet or network resources dedicated to a project or grant, the PI may need a dedicated server.  If a project/grant requires any of the following, a server may need to be funded (in which case ITaP may be able to provide you with server resources, IT staff may need to be hired, and/or services may need to be outsourced):
    • Large amounts of network and storage space (network traffic/file storage space)
    • Proprietary server software
    • High volume of network traffic
    • Server resources that require extensive administration such as management of user-accounts, access control, specialized programming and use of web deliverable technologies
    • A web presence with a unique hostname. ("www.myproject.com")
    • Resources beyond the basic resources already provided by the COE research server.
                  
• When should server funding and staffing issues be considered for a grant?
  • Before the grant proposal is written the PI should research all issues and count all costs related to network and Internet needs for the grant.  Project server / storage costs and technical staffing needs should be written into the grant from the early conceptualization stages of the grant proposal.  See the EdIT Grant Proposal Pre-Submission Technology Questionnaire.
            
• Who is responsible for purchasing a server for my grant?
  • The grant PI is responsible for all costs associated with grant activities including direct and indirect costs related to network server hardware purchases, software purchases, server maintenance and repair, backup implementation, and ongoing technical staff needs.
              
• Who is responsible for hiring staff to maintain my server?
  • The grant PI should write funding into the grant proposal for computer consulting and technical staffing needed to maintain all aspects of the server for the project.  The PI should hire a technical consultant with sufficient skills to install and maintain a server including backup, security, and disaster recovery skills.  Education IT is unable to maintain any more servers.
              
• Who is responsible for ensuring security updates are installed on my server?
  • A PI is responsible for ensuring that security issues are rigorously monitored and the server is kept up to date with all security patches.
             
• Who is responsible for backing up my server?
  • A PI is responsible for ensuring that planning and implementation of a backup and disaster recovery mechanism exists for the server.
           
• Who is liable if my grant server is hacked and used for illegal purposes?
  • The university may be held liable for legal and financial costs associated with the illegal use of a server and damages that may result if the project server is hacked and/or hijacked to perform criminal acts.
  • To Quote from Purdue University's Gene Spafford:
    • "Think about it from a university standpoint. Disclosure of
      admissions, grade, or internal data could result in huge national
      embarrassment (witness what happened to IU), large lawsuits against
      the university (e.g., exposure of sensitive student information),
      loss of research and gift dollars, fines from credit card companies
      (for inadequate protection of credit card information) or even
      criminal sanctions (e.g., release of health information covered under
      HIPPA).
      
      'A feature rich environment' that puts the university at additional
      risk for all of these is not a good choice if there are better
      alternatives. You may have confidence in your ability to avoid
      problems, but I would really like to keep everyone on campus from
      being the subject of a 60 minutes piece or the like, and not everyone
      has the skills or background to handle all the 'features' adequately."
               
• What COE servers are already available for my grant to use?
  • The COE currently has a single research server with basic web presence resources which can be used by small and temporary grant projects. COE faculty can use this server to house small web sites related to their research and develop small "non-grade bearing", and "non-mission critical" web applications using Active Server Pages.
            
• Can I add a non-Purdue domain name to an COE departmental server?
  • Non-Purdue domain names are not supported on COE servers.  We use Purdue departmental domain names only.  If a faculty member requires a non-Purdue domain/host name, the faculty member should acquire an off-site dedicated server for the project or contract with a commercial ISP and purchase a domain name from an ICANN-accredited registrar.  The Purdue webmaster (webmaster@purdue.edu) may also be able to help.  Departmental servers are for academic and COE business use, and to that end the servers have domain names associated with their departments only.  Our servers are not designed for virtual domains.
           
• Can I purchase and install application software on a departmental server and have multiple people run the software from the server?
  • COE departmental servers are designed for basic file and printer sharing.  Running software applications from a departmental server is not supported.  Software applications that run from a server must be locally installed -- a portion of the program must reside on the local workstation -- and licensed for each workstation they run on or for the number of computers the software can potentially run on.  For small groups, there is little benefit to running an application from a server,  In addition, there are extensive user account management issues, network / compatibility issues, authentication issues, and server management costs associated with group application sharing and drive mapping from disparate locations and machine types.  If you need to share an application with a large group, we recommend purchasing licenses for one or more of the 21 seat COE labs and having the software installed on lab computers.  Or purchase licenses for each member of the workgroup and handing out the software to be individually installed on their computers.  Applications that are designed for client/server environments should run on a dedicated application server.
              
• What COE servers are available for my personal faculty/staff web site?
  • The COE provides faculty and staff with web space on the COE web server.  No advanced scripting activities, web application development, or research projects are supported on the COE web server.
  • ITaP provides 500 MB of career account disk space that can be used for your personal web site no questions asked.  See http://www.itap.purdue.edu
             
• What services can Education IT provide to my grant project?
  • We can provide limited technical and creative consulting.  Maintaining and administrating individual project servers is outside the scope of our mission and our financial and technical capabilities.  However, we will be happy to meet with you and to help you plan and find resources for your project server needs.

--Education IT, http://edit.education.purdue.edu/