Monday, February 20, 2017

Effective February 25, UGA’s web standard hosting service will require VPN and Archpass access for authorized users who update their website’s content.

Front-facing sites will not be impacted by this change; however, to update content on sites using UGA’s web standard hosting service, authorized users will need to be logged in to the Virtual Private Network (VPN), which now requires Archpass.

Web standard hosting is a free service for UGA departments and student groups to host their UGA-affiliated websites. Departments and student groups using the web standard hosting service are required to have an administrator of their accounts and maintain it according to UGA policies.

To minimize the possibility of these websites being compromised in a security incident, the web standard hosting service will require VPN and Archpass access for people updating content on these sites in the development and production environments. Sites that use a Content Management System (CMS), such as Drupal, will not be affected by this change.

Effective February 25, people using web standard hosting for their sites will be required to first log-in to the UGA VPN (Virtual Private Network) and authenticate with Archpass in order to update content on their sites.

Archpass is UGA’s two-factor authentication service. UGA students, faculty and staff can self-enroll in Archpass at archpass.uga.edu/enroll.

Users who update content on their sites using the web standard hosting service are encouraged to enroll in Archpass in advance of this change.

New Management Server:

In addition, the web standard hosting service will begin to use a new management server effective February 25. The version of the operating system used for the current servers is going out of support.  

The new management server will have the same functionality, but there will be new names for logging in to the dev/stage environments. Instructions are available on the EITS Help Desk website. 

Please note that the web standard hosting service allows accounts to use different clients to access their content. After February 25, account users will be required to first log in to the VPN and authenticate with Archpass prior to logging in with their clients.

Content Update Change Freeze:

Starting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 23 until 7 p.m. on Saturday, February 25, web standard hosting users will be unable to update content on their sites. During this time, EITS will be migrating the service to a new management server.

Your sites will remain live for visitors during the change freeze, but you will be unable to update content. If you use a Content Management System and you update your site’s content during the maintenance window, your changes may not be saved.

During the maintenance window, technical updates will be posted on UGA’s Systems Status website.

For questions about this change, including if your sites use UGA’s web standard hosting service, please contact Jonathan Hardy.