Website & Server Hosting

OPERATING SYSTEM

The baseline "server" in DIPR is a virtual guest operating system carved out of our VMWare cluster. To maximize flexibility, ERIS maintains all non-essential OS services (i.e structured and non-structured data services) outside of the ESX cluster.

The vast majority of customers should be able to fit into one of our 2 no-cost configurations for VMWare guests. Currently, OS configurations are based solely on CentOS Linux, although requests for Windows or other operating systems will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis:

1. ‘SMALL’: 64-bit CentOS 8  with 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB local disk space – a customer can have 2 of these at no cost (per research fund)
2. ‘MEDIUM': 64-bit CentOS 8 with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB local disk space – a customer can have 1 of these at no cost (per research fund)
3. ‘CUSTOM': Systems requiring different OS configurations or larger resource allocations – we will determine in the customer conversation whether more than a SMALL or MEDIUM configuration is required and create a CUSTOM VM on request. There is a per GB of RAM, one-time charge for 4 years. Includes 32 GB of system storage. If more storage is needed, additional costs may be incurred per GB/month. Cost outlined on rc.partners.org/core/catalog under "Server Host Provisioning."

APPLICATION SERVICES

Any required application components that are included as part of the CentOS distribution and need to be in the OS stack will be included and configured for the customer. ERIS will provide sudo access to customers post-delivery to install any application components that are not part of the CentOS distro in the /opt directory.

VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY:

The core of DIPR is two VMWare ESXi clusters

• LittleDIPR is a 12-node cluster running HP ProLiant BL 460c Gen8 blades, with 40 Intel Xeon e5-2690 v2 cores running at 3ghz each and 256GB of memory
• BigDIPR is a 5-node, running HP ProLiant DL580 G7 servers with 64 Intel Xeon e7-4830 cores running at 2.13ghz and 1 TB of memory

Currently, we are running version 6.X on both hypervisors and Vsphere management. 

Guest operating systems achieve a level of High Availability via VMWare's VMotion technology, which seamlessly moves a guest from one physical server to another in the event of a machine failure. 

By default, VMs are not backed up, ERIS offers several means of protecting user data, including NFS mounted storage which is backed up, and mapping LUNs with snapshot protection. 

MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT:

To keep your Virtual server secure ERIS will automatically update the Operating System monthly. System reboots may be required.

ERIS provides two options for hosting websites within Mass General Brigham-affiliated hospitals (BWH, MGH, McL, etc). 

Shared Web Hosting (Option 1):

Host your department or lab website on our shared web servers running Linux. This is the easiest and quickest way to get your website set up.

Our Hosting Platform includes the following technologies:

• WordPress (free and open-source content management system)
• We can host HTML and PHP pages you design on this Apache-based system
• Our platform is a LAMP Stack (Linux OS, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

Features:

• You can manage your websites via our Secure Self Service web-based portal
• Easy Access to MySQL Database hosting via phpMyAdmin
• Web-based File Manager with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing features
• Daily backups (kept for four weeks) with web-based restore options
• Domains Supported: bwh.harvard.edu, mgh.harvard.edu, mclean.harvard.edu & mgb.org and other Top Level Domains (TLD)
• Website Access: Available Internally and Externally (Internet Facing)
• SSL certs are provided freely for MGB-owned domains
• Websites are actively scanned by AV software
• Log file access – view access/error logs
• Password-protected directories management – restrict access to selected areas of your website with password protection
• WordPress Toolkit provides automated WordPress/plugin/theme updates and patching
• Optional Okta integration

Cost:

• Free

What is Included:

• 10 GB of Storage limit and 100 Gb of traffic per month

Dedicated Virtual Web Hosting Server (Option 2):

Get your own Virtual Server that you manage via our DIPR Cloud environment. On DIPR you may build your own server. Please see the DIPR webpage for more information.

• Technology: VMware ESX 6.X
• Host OS: CentOS Linux 6 or 7 Standard builds (Custom builds with Windows or other Linux versions available, user provides media and licensing if needed)
• Backup: Not Provided
• Database: Provided via our shared database infrastructure
• Domains Supported: bwh.harvard.edu, mgh.harvard.edu, mclean.harvard.edu & partners.org (Users can register other domains if needed)
• Access: Available Internally and Externally (Internet Facing via a Proxy Server)
• SSL Support: Free WIldcard certificate for partners.org domains other domains the user needs to purchase the certificate

If you are interested in Virtual Server Option, please look at our Virtual Server Hosting (DIPR) above.