FAQ - Physical Serverhosting

• You can rent physical servers if you are a memeber of an institution of the RWTH Aachen University and hold the role "Bestellung IT'' for this institution.

In case you don't know whether you hold this role or are supposed to be assigned this role, please contact the role manager ("Rollenverwalter") of your institution.

• We first analyze the requirements on the server in a personal consultation and then prepare an appropriate offer for you.

• When setting up your server, we will discuss with you how the server can be accessed. You need this access to control your server (Power On / Power Off / Reset) and to install an operating system on your server. To complete these tasks, you log onto the Lights Out Management (LOM) of the server which provides you with the functions of a Remote KVM. By default, access is granted from all IP-networks of the respective institution.

  You can access the LOM via a web interface. It can be reached via HTTPS so that the LOM can be reached by the browser of your choice (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.). Depending on the server producer, there are different implementations of the LOM. As a consequence, the supported browsers for the access as well as the functionalities in the LOM can differ. Depending on the LOM, it might be necessary to install a browser plug-in to be able to use all functions of the LOM.

  The URL of the LOM consists of a server-ID provided by us and the respective domain name (currently: "rz.rwth-aachen.de"). E.g.: For a server with the server-ID "xy100c-001" this URL would be: https://xy100c-001.rz.rwth-aachen.de

  Login to the LOM takes place via user accounts configured by us and authorised for this server. These then belong to persons named by you in your organisation. The prerequisite is that these persons have activated the ‘Server hosting’ service account in IDM.

• The costs depend on the individual hardware configuration of the server.

We would be glad to discuss the system requirements with you in a personal consultation and make an individualized offer for you.

• No, the IT center offers a separate backup service.

• The server hardware is located in our machine halls.
  The server is installed via the server's Lights Out Management (LOM). There you have the option of integrating ISOs or files that are located locally on your computer via a web browser. However, you can also insert the installation DVD into your local DVD drive and mount it in the server via the LOM interface. This means that your local drive behaves like a drive on this server.