The Web Hosting Service is a free shared hosting service provided by ITSO. Users share a standard software environment, including Apache and PHP, as well as computing resources such as CPU and memory. Individual customization of the software environment is therefore limited.

In comparison, Virtual Server Hosting provides greater flexibility. Users have full control over their virtual servers, can install software based on their needs, and can purchase additional resources as demand grows. However, users are responsible for administering, maintaining, and securing their virtual servers, which requires appropriate technical expertise.

The Virtual Server Hosting service is designed primarily for general-purpose application hosting. It is not intended for High Performance Computing (HPC) or compute-intensive research workloads, particularly those requiring large-scale computational resources or specialized hardware.

Yes. A subscription fee is charged on a cost-recovery basis for the enterprise-grade infrastructure supporting the service.

Charges are calculated daily based on the server resources allocated, such as CPU and memory. A monthly usage report will be provided to the user department, and the annual budget transfer request will be issued by May each year.

To estimate the annual subscription fee for a specific server configuration, use the "Get a quotation" link on the service page.

ITSO is responsible for supporting the infrastructure of hosted virtual servers, including network connectivity, server performance, data backup and restoration, and other infrastructure-related issues.

Departmental server administrators are responsible for server and application management, including OS updates, application installation and deployment, application configuration, and other application-level tasks. Where applicable, these tasks may also be handled by the relevant application vendor.

Yes. All VaaS virtual servers are backed up daily at no additional charge.

Backups are snapshot-based and incremental, meaning that only changes since the previous backup are transferred after the initial backup. This helps reduce backup time and system impact.

Server backups are normally performed during non-office hours, typically between 9:00pm to 7:00am the next day. The schedule cannot be changed.

Backup is disk-based and is done using snapshot technology.

The backup software first creates a point-in-time image of the virtual server's file system called snapshot which takes a very short time to generate. The backup of the snapshot is then taken from a backup server connected to the point-in-time disk image over a separated storage network. This guarantees minimal impact on the server to be backup.

The following backups are retained:

• 7 daily backups
• 4 weekly backups
• 3 monthly backups

Yes. VaaS backup is snapshot-based and supports Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

• Windows applications that support VSS, such as Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange Server, can be backed up using application-consistent snapshots. This helps ensure that the backup is transactionally consistent and suitable for application recovery.
• Applications that are not VSS-aware, such as MySQL on Windows, require pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts to quiesce the application and flush in-memory data to disk before the snapshot is taken.
• Linux applications and databases may similarly require pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts to ensure application-consistent backups.

For details on configuring pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts, please refer to the Broadcom Knowledge Base article.

Backup is disk-based so files being in use will be backup as well. But data haven't been written to disk will get lost.

Backup supports Volume Shadow Copy on Windows and Sync on Linux system. Applications that support these technologies will be notified and given chance to purge data in memory to disk before backup snapshot is created.

The backups between Friday night and Saturday morning are chosen as weekly backups. Monthly backups are those done between the last night of a month and the first morning of the following month.

For example, the weekly backup for the week starting 4 Mar, 2012 was taken between 9:00pm, 9 Mar and 7:00am, 10 Mar. The monthly backup of Mar 2012 was taken between 9:00pm, 31 Mar and 7:00am, 1 Apr.

Yes. A backup may occasionally fail if a virtual server remains heavily loaded throughout the backup window, preventing the system from creating a snapshot. A backup may also fail if a backup-aware application, such as Microsoft SQL Server, does not respond to the backup request within the required time.

If a server backup fails, ITSO will reschedule the backup for the following day. If backup failures persist, the server administrator will be contacted for further investigation.

Yes. Please contact the ITSO Service Desk at cchelp@ust.hk for assistance. You may request restoration from any available backup within the retention period.

All virtual servers and associated data are maintained on redundant storage and backed up daily. Upon termination of the service, server disks will be securely erased. Backup data will be retained in accordance with the applicable retention policy and permanently deleted upon expiration of the retention period.

• Linux server: Connect using an SSH client.

• Windows Server: Connect using Remote Desktop Connection.

Remote access is protected by the VaaS VPN and requires pre-registration. For details, please refer to the User Guide for Server Administrators.

There are two ways to access the contents:

1. Load the disc on a desktop computer and share its contents over the network. Then, mount the network share on the virtual server.
2. Upload the disc image to the virtual server and mount it locally. On Windows Server, an ISO image can be mounted by double-clicking the file. On Linux, the image can be mounted using a loop device.

Yes, you may access server console through the management portal. For details, please refer to the User Guide for Server Administrators.

You can power on your server through the management portal by navigating to:

Deployments > [Server Name] > ACTIONS > Power On

Performance data covering the past week is available from the management portal by navigating to:

Deployments > [Server Name] > Monitor

Historical performance data can be provided upon request.