General Policy

The server room at 622 van Vleck is used for Math Department operations including infrastructure, administrative/instructional, and research related equipment.  Resource allocation to equipment is prioritized in that order.

Math Department infrastructure servers and network hardware amount to a fraction of the space. Access to the remaining space will be granted based on:

• Total space used: People with more than 3U★ of equipment in the room must be able to demonstrate a need of the additional resources or that their equipment would have benefits to others in the department(for example  collaborative computing projects.)
• The age of the servers being used:  Older servers are more prone to failures, consume more power, generate more heat, and may run end-of-life operating systems.

Before obtaining new equipment you must:

• Consult with IT staff to insure it will fit into the space allocated and to guarantee interoperability with networking, power, and racks. 
• Agree to purchase rack mount server models and mounting equipment so that we can maximize space in the racks for their equipment.  If this is not possible, alternative storage arrangements need to be discussed with the IT staff.

We provide:

• Power in the form of NEMA 5-15P outlets
• Chilled air cooling of the entire room
• Four post racks and shelves if needed
• Ethernet cabling
• Labor to rack equipment and connect it to the network(s)
• OS installation (optional)
• Monitoring of your server's services and resources.※ We do not send you automatic notifications unless requested
• Security monitoring(required)※
• Setting up NetID authentication (optional)
• Assistance resolving basic maintenance issues (optional)

We may provide:

• UPS(battery back-up) power if we have spare capacity. You may be asked to purchase your own UPS.

We do not provide:

• Access to server and security monitoring systems
• Back ups of data

Those moving NEW equipment into the room would have preferential placement of a server for four years of occupation without danger of being “bumped” to an alternative space.   As demands require, we would survey the server equipment in the room and ask those with the oldest equipment to either retire and/or replace their equipment or find alternative accommodations.  It may be necessary to move old units still in use from 622 to alternative locations.  Math Department IT Staff would take steps to insure usability from the new location and work with the user to insure safe transfer of the equipment.

Those with equipment in the server room must agree to:

• The Security Policy below
• The Storage Policy below
• Retirement of Servers Policy below
• The UW Acceptable Use Policy of IT Resources

Security Policy

• Any server communicating in such a way that appears to be a security risk or has deemed to be in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy of IT Resources is subject to investigation and disconnection from the network, and may need to be reported to Cybersecurity.
• Any server that has software that has security issues may be taken offline until such problems can be mitigated or patched. 
• Hosting in a math department server space requires support staff to have a root password or a local account with sudo access(preferred).  With this account we can investigate problems, reboot to activate software updates, and shut down the system. If the server has any kind of out of band management we will ask that we are given admin access to place it on a separate VLAN and configure it.
• Anyone who hosts in a math department server space agrees to provide contact information in the event of an emergency, a security event or in the event of an emergency security patch notification.
• If a security problem is discovered IT staff will:
  1. Attempt to communicate the problem to the emergency contact(s) and arrange for resolution.
  2. If unable to resolve/mitigate issues within 6 hours of discovery, network access may be disabled
  3. If unable to resolve/mitigate within 24 hours of discovery the server will be shut down.

Storage Policy

Anyone who has a server in the server room agrees to not host any data that qualifies as "sensitive" such as Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers, or types of data restricted by FERPA or HIPAA regulations.

Retirement of Servers Policy

Servers will be retired upon request or if they have been abandoned.

A server is considered abandoned if:

• It is unused for more than 1 year
• And we are unable to reach anyone listed as contacts for it.

Before you request that we dispose of equipment you should ensure that any important data on the server has been backed up or copied to your own storage device. Server disks are not given away.

Disposal of Server Equipment

We dispose of servers using SWAP.

To insure maximum data security, any machine intended for disposal via SWAP will be erased using a standard set of erasure tools.  The equipment, once erased, will be sent to SWAP for resale or recycling, but parts from the equipment may be salvaged for future use.

★ A U of space is 1 Rack Unit of space; approximately 1.75 inches high.
※ This requires installation of software on the server