Carnegie Mellon University
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Prospective Campus Cloud Customers
Frequently Asked Questions

You can use Campus Cloud for:

  • Departmental IT applications
  • Research data
  • Sponsored graduate student projects
  • Web hosting
  • Other needs traditionally hosted by physical servers
The Campus Cloud service supports guest operating systems including but not limited to:
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2008
  • RedHat Enterprise Linux
  • CentOS
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise
  • Debian GNU/Linux
  • Ubuntu Linux
The operating system must be a version that the vendor supports currently. Contact Computer Services to determine if we can support other operating systems. Note: Due to our VMware licensing terms, we are unable to support desktop operating systems (e.g., Windows 8, Windows 7, etc.).
Security features include:
  • Network protection from public address spaces
  • Network protection from other on-campus subnets
  • Network security configured in the same manner as Physical Co-Location
Yes. The standard backup configuration leverages VMWare snapshot technology combined with CommVault backup technology, and includes the following:
  • Nightly backups
  • On- and off-site data retention
  • Restoration of individual files or the entire system
This configuration is appropriate for most customers. We can arrange for other configurations, as projects require.

Computing Services will provide the provisioning, support, and reporting services for all VMs running in this infrastructure, as well as methods for you to manage your VM. Computing Services will provide administrative support of the VM, Storage Area Networking (SAN), backups, and networking infrastructure that underlie these VMs. On-site staff provides support 24/7.

These are the current limits for any single VM running in this infrastructure:
  • Max vCPUs: 12
  • Max vRAM: 64 GB. Please contact Computing Services if you need more.
  • Networking: 2 subnets are available for the VMs in this environment:
    • A100 Datacenter - Colocation Public (a100-colo-pub)
    • A100 Machine Room Network - Non Computing Services - Private (a100-ncs-priv)
  • Max Disk: The maximum vmdk partition size is 1TB. Multiple partitions are available.
Computing Services does not recommend a P2V migration. If there are no other options, we will assist as best we can.
For more information, including availability, features, pricing, and backup configuration details, Request a Consultation.