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Cost Recovery Services

Virtual Server (VS) Hosting & Resources Details

For University of Georgia faculty and staff who have a need to run a server but do not have appropriate resources to maintain a physical server, EITS offers a virtual server hosting service.  This service can be customized to comply with applicable laws, policies, and guidelines provided by external partners.

In order to streamline the deployment and maintenance of VMs hosted in this service, we provide three base models that clients can request.  The Small VM is designed for basic applications and services (such as, simple LAMP servers).  The Medium VM is our most popular option and is configured to run a wide array of applications and services.  The Large VM is configured for applications that need more compute (such as, SQL servers).  EITS does not provide backups for any of VMs hosted in this service; clients are responsible for maintaining their own backups.

This service is provided to University of Georgia faculty and staff on a cost recovery basis.  Rates for the service can be found in the EITS Cost Recovery Services and Rates Table.

If you have questions or concerns about this service, please see the Virtual Server Hosting Service Contact Information at the bottom of this page.

Important Service Details

  • Each Virtual Machine (VM) instance will incur a one-time provisioning/setup fee

Standard Configuration Effective 7/1/2020 Forward

  • There are 3 different standard server configurations offered:
    • Small VM
      • 1 vCPU (virtual CPU cores)
      • 8GB RAM (virtual memory)
      • 100 GB HDD (virtual storage)
    • Medium VM
      • 2 vCPU (virtual CPU cores)
      • 12GB RAM (virtual memory)
      • 100 GB HDD (virtual storage)
    • Large VM
      • 4 vCPU (virtual CPU cores)
      • 16GB RAM (virtual memory)
      • 100 GB HDD (virtual storage)
  • Additional memory, compute, or storage can be added at additional costs
  • Clients can request the setup and of a load-balanced Virtual IP (VIP) at additional costs
  • Service cancellations require a 90-day notice from the client
  • This service provides no backups of the VM; including OS, applications, or data

Virtual Server Backup Services (Effective 7/1/2021 Forward)

Clients wishing to include standard backups with their hosted virtual server, now will have the option to do so. We are only providing this option for virtual servers hosted within this service, and there is an additional cost to this service enhancement. You can choose which individiual virtual servers get backed up, and the charges are per VM (up to 1TB of storage). The backups will be daily, replicated to a secondary location, and maintained for 21 days. Clients needing to backup VMs larger than 1TB in size will incur additional charges. The minimum, per server, storage increase will be 1TB. Daily backups will be schedule for after business hours. Backups will be automatically copied to an alternate EITS data center for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes.

Client Expectations

  • Provide EITS with a business contact for any billing changes or issues
  • Provide EITS with a technical contact for any service changes or issues
  • Inform EITS of any changes to business or technical contact information
  • Responsible for backup and restore functionality to ensure continuity of data and restoration of service in the case of a disaster that impacts client’s VM(s).
    • If client pays for the Virtual Server Backup Service, the client would be responsible for initiating and validating restorations; EITS would own responsibilities for adding the server to the appropriate backup policy.
  • Responsible for the installation of VMware tools and updates to it on all hosted VMs.
  • Responsible for the application of all patches and updates to the guest operating system
  • Responsible for the application of all patches and updates to any and all software installed on top of the guest operating system
  • Responsible for the procurement and renewal of any licensing and support agreements for any operating system, applications, or tools used within the client VM
  • Responsible for performance and availability monitoring including after-hours response to system outages related to guest server configuration problems or disruptions
  • Responsible for documentation of configuration and maintenance procedures and processes concerning guest environment
  • Responsible for timely response to all security concerns
  • Initial and ongoing Firewall requests
  • Initial and ongoing SSL security certificate requests
  • Requesting initial and on-going network changes including load balancer Virtual IP (VIP) changes to be charged according to the published network support rate
  • End user support for any users of applications or services provided by the client VM
  • Clients should NOT retain any VMWare snapshots for longer than 7 days at any time

EITS Expectations

  • Responsible for configuration and updates to hardware, firmware, and hypervisor
  • Responsible for hardware and hypervisor troubleshooting, diagnosis, and resolution
  • Responsible for performance and availability monitoring of underlying infrastructure
  • Responsible for documentation of configuration and processes for infrastructure
  • Provide support and proactive communications to clients.
    • Normal Support will be provided during standard business hours of 8:00am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday, excluding University observed holidays and University closures.
    • Emergency Support will include of a maximum one-hour response time during emergencies or service outages between standard business hours.
    • Extended Support outside of standard business hours will be on a best effort response following the EITS on-call procedures.
  • Delegating appropriate levels of access to clients for systems administration of the VM by client
  • Maintaining the internal and external network connectivity of the virtual infrastructure
  • Coordinate the setup and maintenance of any requested Virtual IP (VIP)

Virtual Server (VS) Support & Resources Contact Information

Submit a Virtual Server service request
Tier 1: EITS Help Desk (http://EITSHelpdesk.uga.edu) – (706) 542-3106
Tier 2: Ashley Henry, IT Senior Manager — (706) 542-1091, ashenry@uga.edu 

Updated: 7/12/2021