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Setup of Hosted Websites

This page explains how to set up your web page on the ITS web server. Follow the steps below to create a directory on the central server and then upload your pages to it.

1. Prior to proceeding...

You must have a UCSC account and know your username and password.
You should be able to write your own web pages with HTML or using an HTML editor (ie. Dreamweaver, etc.).
You should have some familiarity with sftp (secure file transfer protocol).

If you are not comfortable with these recommendations, please consider our Campus WCMS service.

2. Request a web directory

To house your unit web pages, request a web directory so that people browsing the web can find your unit pages with either:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/unitname/

http://unitname.ucsc.edu/ (requires permission from Communications and Marketing)

Once you are notified that your web directory is set up, you can either edit your web pages in place directly on the UNIX host or upload your pages.

3. Upload your pages to the server

After you have created web pages for your unit, upload the files into the central server directory that has been created for you or edit them in place using a UNIX text editor. You must use the sftp protocol.

How to obtain SFTP software

Any file transfer software that supports SFTP can be used to upload your files — by SFTP we mean SSH (or Secure) File Transfer Protocol: not Simple FTP, not FTP over SSH, and not FTPS (FTP over SSL). In addition, many HTML editors have a "remote save" or "upload to server option". Free SFTP software is also available.

Upload your files using SFTP

To connect to the server where your web pages will be stored, your SFTP software will need the following information:

    Hostname: sftp.ic.ucsc.edu
    Username: UCSC ID (use your UCSC cruzid)
    Port Number: 22
    Authentication Method: Password (use your blue password)
    Directory: /afs/cats.ucsc.edu/www/unitname

Note: Publish your pages to either the prod/public_html or the dev/public_html directories depending on whether you are publishing to the production or development servers. The public_html directories already have the correct permissions set for web publishing. Be sure to place your files inside these subdirectories.

Or edit your pages in place (not recommended for most)

If you are familiar with UNIX, you can also edit your files in place using one of the UNIX text editors.

Login to unix.ic.ucsc.edu using your UCSC account and change your current directory to your web directory:
% cd /afs/cats.ucsc.edu/www/unitname

Then place your files in either the prod/public_html or the dev/public_html directories depending on whether you are publishing to the production or development servers. Files placed within the public_html directory will be visible on the web.

4. View your pages

View your page with a web browser set to:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/unitname/filename

http://unitname.ucsc.edu/filename (if a virtual host name has been approved and enabled for your unit.)

Once you have created your unit home page, you can refine it further by using any of the HTML editors you are familiar with. At any time the site administrator can edit directory permissions and other properties .