Frequently Asked Questions


Who is this service for? This service is made available to recognized University of Hawaii departments and staff offices with well-defined projects that clearly serve the University of Hawaii community. The service is open to units from all 10 campuses of the University of Hawaii System.
Who is providing this service? The Information Technology Services (ITS) department, a UH System office, is providing this service.
How does this service relate to other existing services? Existing services provide self-managed, static web pages. This service complements existing services by providing departments and staff offices a means to develop and deploy dynamic web pages. Sites are deployed within and integrate seamlessly with the existing University of Hawaii web space. At some point, this service may replace the various existing services to provide a more robust, secure means to develop sites at UH.

The original intent of this free service is to provide basic web hosting for departmental websites. Departments and units that requires more than what can be provided under this service should consider the use of the ITS VMware service at https://www.hawaii.edu/its/datacenter/services.php?cat=dc.
Do you provide tutorials on PHP or MySQL? No. To qualify for this service, you must have in-house staff capable of working with PHP and MySQL. We provide no tutorials or support for learning these technologies.
What are the technical details?

The service's technology infrastructure includes:

Features of this service include:

  • Secure FTP access
  • Seemless integration into UH webspace
  • Weekly backups

For those seeking to run a specific web application, and need to verify if our web service meets the application's minimum technical specifications:

  • 160MB memory limit
  • 5MB default upload limit (expandable to 10MB)
  • 1GB web quota *
  • 250MB database quota *

* Because this is a free web service, we do not offer the option to increase quotas. Programs, departments, and units are responsible being aware of their file sizes when uploading files to the web space to ensure they do not go close to or over quota. For any other technical specs not listed here, please contact web-support-l@lists.hawaii.edu.

What are the minimum qualifications?
  1. Clearly defined project Your project must be clearly defined and relevant to the University community and have lasting value. General development, course-related work, and other non-business related work is not supported.

    • Please check with your departmental/college IT staff/group if you need general development space.
    • Laulima is the ITS supported learning management system for course-related work.
  2. Part of an officially recognized UH unit Your department or staff office must be officially recognized by the University. Temporary organizations, non-registered RIOs, and non-University groups may not apply.
  3. Executive sponsor An executive sponsor must approve your request for participation. For departmental websites, the executive sponsor would be the a dean, director, department chair, a senior office administrator or principal investigator.
  4. UH Username Only University faculty or staff may request to participate in this service. We require a personal UH Username to validate this affiliation. Departmental and organizational UH Usernames are not allowed under this service.
  5. In-House PHP and MySQL expertise For our PHP/MySQL web hosting service, you must have someone on your staff who can develop with PHP and MySQL. This service provides no support for learning PHP or MySQL and cannot respond to issues resulting from a lack of expertise. For this reason, we do not accept units without any in-house experience.

    If your website is compromised the first time for failure to maintain your code, your website will be quarantined (pulled from public viewing) and you will be issued a first warning. A second violation will result in a ban from UH Hosting Website Services for a 6-month period. A third violation will result in a permanent ban from the UH Hosting Website Service.

  6. Intended deployment within UH web space Your website URL must be part of the hawaii.edu name space.
  7. Commercial applications Commercial applications are allowed only for official UH business. Departments must comply with all university policies and procedures regarding handling of sensitive information such as credit card numbers, personally identifiable information (PII) and PCI compliance. Policies/procedures include, but not limited to:

    EP 2.214 - Institutional Data Classification Categories and Information Security Guidelines
    http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.214

    EP 2.215 - Institutional Data Governance
    http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.215

    AP 8.710 - Credit Card Administration
    http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ap8.710
  8. No sensitive data We currently do not allow the development of applications that store secure data classified as sensitive or regulated below.

    Public Data Protected Data
    Public (No Risk) Restricted (Low Risk) Sensitive (Medium Risk) Regulated (High Risk)
    No privacy considerations. Data used internally within the UH community but not released to external parties without a contract or memorandum of agreement. Data subject to privacy considerations. Highly sensitive data that is subject to state breach notification requirements, financial fines, or other penalties.
    Definition:
    Institutional Data where access is not restricted and is subject to open records requests
    Definition:
    Institutional Data used for UH business only. Restricted data will not be distributed to external parties except under the terms of a written memorandum of agreement or contract. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.
    Definition:
    Institutional Data subject to privacy or security considerations or any Institutional Data not designated as public, restricted, or regulated. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.
    Definition:
    Institutional Data where inadvertent disclosure or inappropriate access requires a breach notification in accordance with HRS ยง487N or is subject to financial fines. Social Security Number (SSN) and personal financial information fall within this category. Data is maintained in a physically secured location.

    Click here to view examples of data/information by category [UH Login Required]
  9. Must be accessible Our Service Level Agreement (SLA) terms have changed to include a General Commitment to Accessibility statement


    that reflects what is stated in the University's Executive Policy E2.210.
    The policy states that all web content produced by the University should be in compliance with Federal Section 508 guidelines by meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA criteria as outlined at http://www.hawaii.edu/policy/ep2.210. Therefore, all new web content published by the University offices should be fully compliant with Section 508 guidelines. Existing content should be checked for compliance, and remediated on a prioritized basis in accordance with time and resource availability. Any legal mandate may obligate remediation on a specified timeline.

    Please refer to the UH Guidelines for Accessible Technology and Digital Media at http://www.hawaii.edu/access/uhguidelines.html and to Information on Website Accessibility at http://hawaii.edu/access/webaccess.html, for more information on how to make your web content accessible.
Am I allowed to use a content management system (e.g. WordPress)? Yes. You may choose to utilize either an Information Technology Services (ITS) supported version of Drupal or WordPress, or choose to manage your own content management system (CMS) installation.

ITS Supported Content Management Service Options

  • WordPress

    ITS offers a WordPress multisite service for UH System (www.hawaii.edu/<sitename>) and UH Manoa (manoa.hawaii.edu/<sitename>) departments. This service features an ADA compliant theme. All WordPress updates are managed by ITS. This option is especially ideal for departments who may not have the necessary funding to have a dedicated IT specialist manage the backend of the website, but would still like to have an online presence in the UH community. WordPress offers a user-friendly interface that allows its users to easily create and edit content without requiring any coding experience.

    Documentation on the WordPress multisite service:

    To maintain ADA compliance and to provide an easy migration path to a new content management system, the service, currently, uses a simple ADA compliant template and restricts the use of custom plugins and themes. Departments seeking to use specialized WordPress plugins and custom themes must manage their own individual WordPress installation. Both UH System and UH Manoa ADA compliant themes are available for download to use with individual WordPress installations. Please email web-support-l@lists.hawaii.edu for more information.

    You can view a list of live websites using the WordPress multisite service at:

Managing A Standalone Content Management System

By choosing to manage your own content management system installation, you have full control over your CMS as long as compatible with our technical details. You will be responsible for manually installing the CMS, and ensuring its core/version and components are kept up-to-date. Your department is required to always have a dedicated technically knowledgeable website administrator available to address any technical issues with the website. At no time will ITS maintain the CMS because the department cannot provide its own website administrator.


ITS will be running frequent scans for any vulnerabilities on any CMS installed under our hosting service. If your website is compromised the first time for failure to maintain your CMS and its components, your website will be quarantined (pulled from public viewing) and you will be issued a first warning. A second violation will result in a ban from UH Hosting Website Services for a 6-month period. A third violation will result a permanent ban from the UH Hosting Website Service.

Why would I want this service? This service provides a hardware/software platform upon which to develop and deploy dynamic web content, and to collect and store data for subsequent reporting needs. The cost, including staffing costs, of the infrastructure and administration requirements for the hardware/software platform are absorbed centrally in order to provide economies of scale for UH.
How do I apply? If you meet the minimum requirements listed above, please click on the "Application Form" link in the side menu. You will be presented with an online application form. Fill out the form as instructed, and fill out the form to the best of your ability. Once you submit the form, your application will be entered into our system and will be considered on a first come, first serve basis.