Guidelines on Physical Server Hosting

This guideline applies to servers hosted at the University Data Centres, which is managed by the Computing Services Centre (CSC). The CSC provides physical server hosting for usage such as High-Performance Computing (HPC) and computing workloads that cannot be run under virtualization environment.

The primary University Data Centre (DC) is divided into 3 zones, viz. Central IT zone, Departmental zone, and HPC zone. The Central IT zone provides Virtual Machine (VM) environment for hosting critical services for both University-wide and departmental applications. The Departmental zone is mainly for department-managed IT equipment which cannot be run under the Central IT virtualised environment. The HPC zone is particularly designed for HPC Servers, which require high electricity provision and high cooling capacity.

Departments requesting computing resources (servers) to be hosted centrally are required to observe the following:

Server
  1. Department shall provide the tentative hardware configuration to the CSC for approval before purchasing the hardware. The CSC reserves the rights to reject the application if the hardware configurations do not fit the DC environment.
  2. The servers to be hosted must be rack-mounted in order to better utilise the space.
  3. The airflow of all equipment in the rack must be consonant with the hot aisle/cold aisle airflow design of the DC. Airflow of unused rack space must be blocked.
  4. The servers should have remote access controllers such as Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) to perform remote server management. The use of IP-based Keyboard, Video and Mouse (KVM) with per port power controllable Power Distribution Unit (PDU) is also acceptable. The use of other remote access controllers may be allowed but is subject to CSC’s approval.
  5. The servers must be under a valid maintenance contract and not have reached the end of support by the hardware vendor. Departments should be responsible for the maintenance of their servers hosted in the DC, and contacting their maintenance service providers when needed.
Network
  1. The CSC generally provides network connectivity using copper medium, for example, 1GBaseT or 10GBaseT. A one-time network connection fee will be charged at $2,500 and $10,000 for 1GBaseT and 10GBase T ports respectively. For clusters with multiple servers, departments may consider installing a local network switch using “Top-of-Rack” design. Cross-rack connections would be allowed on a case-by-case basis.
  2. For network connectivity, unless otherwise requested, all inbound traffic are blocked from the Internet edge.
  3. The Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the machines are assigned by the CSC.
Electricity & Power
  1. Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) can be provided to one power source in the Departmental zone for up to 15 minutes only. In the HPC zone, owing to high power consumption requirements, the UPS may not be provided. Departments can choose to lengthen the period by purchasing an additional in-rack UPS certified by the CSC. In addition to the UPS, the DC electricity is also connected to genset to serve as resilient power source, but the priority is given to servers in the Central IT zone.
  2. The CSC provisioned only minimal number of power ports in various racks. Departments may be required to purchase additional CSC-selected PDU using their own budgets for power connections.
Physical Access
  1. The hosting facility can be accessed for equipment installation and first-time setup during normal office hours. User departments should ensure that their colleagues or subcontractors, who are granted access to the DC, will comply with the policies and procedures.
  2. In normal circumstances, no physical access to the server is allowed. The CSC will provide remote management network for the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)/ Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)/ Integrated Lights-Out by HPE (iLO) access to the equipment console, if available. Remote hands service by the CSC may be offered when needed during office hour. The service includes mainly status checking and power cycling.
Incident Management
  1. In the case of incidents such as breaking down of Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) unit causing temperature rising to unacceptable level, all high-power consumption machines except those already approved and registered by the CSC as critical machines would be powered off without prior notice for protection purposes.
  2. Machines undertaking malicious activities will be subject to actions/procedures in accordance with the Information Security Incident Management Standards. Depending on its severity, the machine will at worst be isolated from the network or be powered off.
  3. No paper/box or flammable materials can be left unattended inside the DC.
Equipment Delivery and Scheduling
  1. Delivery Arrangement and Scheduling
    Equipment deliveries must be scheduled at least 2 working days in advance with the CSC Operations Team (ccoper@cityu.edu.hk).
  2. Third-party Equipment Delivery
    If the equipment is to be delivered by a third party, please note that:
    • The CSC Operations Team generally does not accept delivery on behalf of the user department;
    • The user department should make prior appointment with the CSC and should be present to check the deliveries against the delivery note, as well as inspect the physical conditions of the delivered items;
    • The user department shall prepay all charges for shipments, freight, packages, etc., and shall be responsible for all shipping and/or freight claims;
    • The user department should be responsible for unboxing, installation or physical mounting of the equipment to the rack, etc., and should not expect the CSC to help on it.
    • Machines must be delivered to the designated area.
  3. Storage
    • Spare equipment cannot be stored in the DC.
    • Once the initial user setup has been completed, all packaging materials must be removed from the DC within 3 working days.
    • If there is not enough temporary storage space, the CSC will store user department’s equipment in a designated and secure area, subject to availability. The installation must be completed within a reasonable period.
    • All equipment left in the common storage areas for more than 2 calendar weeks will be sent back to the user department.
    • The CSC is not responsible for any loss or damage to the equipment in the storage area or in transit to return to the user department.
Service charge
  1. The hosting fee is currently waived until the end of December 2019, subject to annual review.
  2. The electricity fee, on meter-charged basis, is currently waived until the end of December 2019, subject to further review.
Service Level Agreement
  1. The DC will be moved from the YEUNG building to the CMC building in 2020. Departments are required to pay the removal fee and be responsible for removing their servers with a 4-month prior notice.
  2. Service level is provided on a best-effort basis. The CSC will not be held responsible for any service interruption. Based on the past records, the service availability is over 99.9%.
  3. Backup and restore work, if needed, should be handled by user departments.
  4. No UPS is provided for the HPC zone. User departments, however, can purchase the CSC-approved rack-based UPS inside the rack as an option.
  5. In case of cooling system failure in the DC, all servers in the HPC zone and the Departmental zone will be powered down immediately without prior notice to reduce the temperature rise in the Computer Room within a short period of time.
User Responsibility
  1. User departments will be held responsible for any damage caused by their colleagues or subcontractors.
  2. User departments are required to provide the manpower and the monetary resources to ensure the proper implementation and configuration of the servers. The CSC in general provides remote administration support, guidance and coordination support only.
  3. User departments should provide the CSC with an updated inventory list detailing the hardware information (i.e. detailed hardware configuration, including serial number, fixed asset number, software usage, purchase date, warranty period, etc.) and the software installed for reference.
  4. User departments should provide the CSC with the equipment owner and technical contacts, and immediately inform the CSC if there is any change to them.

The CSC reserves the rights to revise these terms & conditions at any time without prior notice.

IT.ServiceDesk@cityu.edu.hk