Migrating from old UNIX home page Server

Summary

Users are advised to migrate their personal home pages to the new HKUST iHome Service ihome.ust.hk. Both hardware and software of the old UNIX home page server home.ust.hk are outdated in comparing to the current technology. Hence, the old Unix home page server home.ust.hk is solely for compatibility and iHome migration purpose and will be retired ultimately.

This page provides step-by-step instructions to help you migrate your web site to new HKUST iHome Service and instructions on how to activate the redirection service from home.ust.hk to ihome.ust.hk.

Included on this page:


Getting Started

1. Overview

This guideline is for those users who would like to migrate from the old Unix home page server to the new HKUST iHome Service.

2. Enable your iHome Account

HKUST iHome Service is available for all staff and students in HKUST but you need first to activate your account via the "HKUST iHome Service: Personal Settings" below with your ITSC Network Account.

Please read the Policies and Guidelines first and then click on the following "HKUST iHome Service: Personal Settings" to enable your HKUST iHome Service with your ITSC Network Account.

HKUST iHome Service: Personal Settings

3. Check your Disk Space

The default disk quota for iHome are 100 MB. You should verify that you have enough space to move all your Web pages to iHome server. This is particularly important if you have requested additional space on timesharing host before.

To find out how much space your Web pages consume on your UNIX account. Logon to any UNIX timesharing server and enter:

cd public_html
du -s -k

It returns a number after the "du -s -k" command, the number is the total size of all the files in your current directory. The unit of which is in KBytes.

Moving Your Files

The www-migrate command copies files from one Web directory to another. It does not delete any files. To copy all the files from your Web directory on your UNIX account to your Web directory on iHome. Logon to any timesharing host and enter:

www-migrate

Note: This command is actually invoking ncftpput to copy files from ~/public_html/ directory to your iHome webspace via FTP, so enter your logon password when prompted.

Checking Your Site

Because your Web site has moved to a new location and the links in your web pages may be affected, it is recommended to check your new Web site, file by file if necessary, for the following kind of problems:


Redirecting Requests

We provide a redirection service on old Unix home page server to help visitors find your new home page address. You can activate this service using the www-redirect command.

To redirect requests made to your old location on Home. Logon to any timesharing host and enter:

www-redirect ihome 

Note: If you are changing to a different login name or moving to some other Web server, specify the base URL for your new Web site. Here are two examples:

www-redirect http://ihome.ust.hk/~cspeter
www-redirect http://otherserver.ust.hk/newsite

Cleaning Up

Once you have activated old Home server redirection service, it is time to consider cleaning up. Any files you leave in your Web directory count against your global UNIX disk quota and should be removed. Please verify that your web pages on the new iHome web server works as you expect before deleting those old pages.

To remove your web directory and its contents. Logon to any timesharing host and enter:

www-delete

Note: To ensure you didn't make any mistakes, you must enter "y" or "Y" to confirm the action. Also, if you have issued www-redirect to redirect your homepage to somewhere else, the file .htaccess in public_html directory will be preserved.

Contact ITSC if you have any questions in converting references to home.ust.hk within your Web pages and hyperlinks.