Guidelines: Setting Up a World Wide Web Server
Some departments and organizations on the UNC-CH campus may choose to set up their own World Wide Web servers instead of choosing an existing Web server. Some considerations for running a Web server that will be linked into the UNC-CH home page are discussed here.
Reliability
The serving machine must be left on and connected to the Internet at all times for the Web pages to be accessible. The system administrator should be on call at all times in case the system goes down.
Serving machine
A variety of computers can be used as servers.
The machine should provide rapid, reliable response, and it must be capable of handling the activity placed on it by Web requests for information.
Naming the server
If you choose to set up a server, remember that the Internet address you choose will be displayed to people who view pages on your machine; select a name that identifies your organization.
System administrator
You will need someone to select, run, and maintain the software. Beside the server software itself, you will need file transfer software, statistics reporting software, etc. While it will be the responsibility of your system administrator to select and maintain the software, compatibility across campus platforms is desirable, so we recommend you look at the software currently in use on Web servers on campus as a starting point for consideration on your server.
Why run your own server?
There are several reasons why you might want to run your own server.
You might already have a Unix workstation and system administrator and prefer to keep your information on your own computer system.
You might have a lot of files that are updated frequently and find it inconvenient to transfer the files often to another machine.
You might have a database that is updated frequently, that has an inquiry interface, like the Online Campus Directory, with its SQL interface.
Why use www.unc.edu instead of running your own server?
Academic Technology and Networks (ATN) already has committed itself to providing a reliable computer system with extensive data storage, www.unc.edu machine, also known as Ra.
ATN has highly competent system administrators whose job it is to keep up with the latest and greatest in Web technology and make it available on Ra.
Using ATN services can save you time and aggravation.
Assistance in setting up a Web server
ATN staff and the Web-Walkers can provide some assistance in setting up a Web server.
However, ATN's primary responsibility is to provide services on www.unc.edu and help people put their information on www.unc.edu. Assistance to people who want to put up their own information servers has lower priority.
There are a few newsgroups of interest to people who maintain Web servers, including the following:
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Last modified:
1998 Aug 20
