Departments and student associations can set up and manage a virtual server on ICT's VMware vSphere web client instead of purchasing their own (physical) server.

Request a virtual server

Employees can request a virtual server via ICT Selfservice.

Student associations can request a virtual server from ICT via the system administrator of the Student Activities Service (DSA). The DSA must always name a member of staff (e.g. the Director of Student Services) as the contact person on the request.

By submitting a request, you automatically agree to the terms and conditions below.

Manage a virtual server

• Log on to Athena.
• Start the Vmware vSphere Web Client application on Athena (Apps > category System Management).
• Log on to the Vmware vSphere Web Client application with your Ghent University account.
• Navigate to your virtual machine(s) under Home > vsphere2.ugent.be > Datacenter-Sterre > colocatie.

Terms and conditions

Self-care management

The administrator of the virtual server is responsible for:

• the OS (except for Windows).
• the software licenses if required.
• the access rights (authentication and authorizations) in the system. ICT only provides management rights to the management console of the virtual server.
• the timely communication of a new administrator via ICT Selfservice or ICT HelpMe if the original administrator can no longer or no longer wishes to manage a virtual server (e.g. because this employee is going to work for another department or employer). A virtual server without an administrator will be shut down.

Mandatory use of VMware tools

The virtualisation platform is based on VMware. For security reasons, it is mandatory to use VMware tools on every virtual machine.

This package is automatically installed when a Windows server is rolled out. For Linux, the virtual server administrator is responsible for installing "open-vm-tools".

If a virtual server does not run VMware tools, ICT has the right to shut down this server for security reasons.

Fair use

If a virtual server makes unlawful use of resources, ICT has the right to shut down this server.

Keep the server up to date

The administrator of the virtual server is responsible for keeping the OS up to date, with the exception of Windows. For Windows servers, ICT will automatically push updates (under normal circumstances during the night from Saturday to Sunday).

If a server has an outdated OS or is missing certain security patches without a valid reason, ICT has the right to shut down this server.

If ICT detects a security incident or data breach, ICT will isolate or shut down the server and the department/administrator/user may be held jointly responsible for any damage, e.g. if negligence is found to be involved.

Make backups

The administrator of the virtual server is responsible for making backups of the virtual server. If data is lost or other problems occur in the virtual server, the administrator must ensure that the data is recovered and the problems are resolved. This can be done by connecting a network drive from the storage offering where this functionality is available.

ICT only provides disaster recovery backups of the entire virtualisation platform. However, these backups are aimed at restoring the entire system, but not at restoring individual files within the virtual servers.

Annual activation

If a virtual server is not being used, or is not being used within the context of normal university operations and purposes, ICT will email the administrator of the virtual server to ask whether the server should be retained or deleted.

It is then the administrator's responsibility to respond within 30 days via ICT Selfservice. If they fail to do so, the virtual server will be permanently deactivated.

Windows servers

Windows servers are always set up in consultation with the System Management Teama (ICT) and are subject to a number of additional terms of use:

• The server is installed via ECM.
• Security updates will be installed periodically, mandatorily, and automatically.
• ICT makes daily backups of the entire VM, but a VM backup is not a sufficient backup for a live database running on the server. It is the responsibility of the applicant to configure regular backups of the database to a local folder on the server (e.g. E:\Backup).
• Remote Desktop sessions can only be started via the RDP Gateway and not via TeamViewer, AnyDesk, …
• ICT only provides support for the platform: the virtual server, Windows, network configuration, firewall, updates, ... The applicant is responsible for installing and configuring the application on the server.
• ICT includes the server into a number of monitoring systems (ATP Defender, ECM, Tenable) and will report any abnormalities back to the person responsible for the server. In the event of serious security risks, the server will be shut down.

Linux servers

When requesting a virtual server, you can, for example, choose a default Linux profile. If desired, you can install another distro afterwards via a PXE boot.

PXE boot

The PXE boot service below is a slightly modified version of netbootxyz and provides access to a list of supported Linux distros, rescue images, and tools.

• Open a remote console.
• Hold down ESC during startup.
• Read the disclaimer carefully and press any key to continue.
• View the proxy menu with the supported Linux distros and install a recent (non-EOL) version of a supported Linux distro.
• Install VMWare tools on your system (mandatory), e.g. by searching for "open-vm-tools".

Opgelet

ICT offers a self-hosted version of the OS.

• You can contact ICT HelpMe if you encounter problems installing the supported distros. For problems installing other distros and images, please refer to the netbootxyz repo op github.
• ICT does not provide support for the OS itself.

Since the release of 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu no longer offers classic netboot images for server installs. This means that the installation takes longer and may appear to hang at a certain point, but this is not the case. At the end of the installation process, a similar phenomenon will occur during the cloud init attempt.

RHEL 8+ variants (CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, etc.) require at least 4 GB of RAM. Otherwise, the installation will fail.