Web Server Migration

Les Flodrowski

 

Over the coming months all Social Science departmental, course and personal websites will be migrated from Axis to a new web server known as Gemini. Although the migration will be transparent to outside users, this article outlines some changes and new features of which web page authors should be aware.

Each departmental website, along with its corresponding course and personal pages, will be migrated individually. The migration schedule and pertinent information will be published in advance of the move as a Network Notice. All departmental webmasters will be contacted to ensure the migration proceeds as seamlessly as possible.

The following paragraphs outline some of the notable new features and benefits that will be available after each departmental website has been migrated.

Unique Website URLs

Each departmental website will function independently, gathering its own logs and having a unique URL for the website in the form of:

www.department.uwo.ca or

department.uwo.ca

For example, the URL for the History department will become www.history.uwo.ca or simply history.uwo.ca. Note that attempts to access old departmental links in the form:

www.ssc.uwo.ca/department

will still work. Departments may wish to change their web pages and promotional material to reflect the new URL format once the migration is complete.

Departmental Usage Statistics

Web usage statistics will be available for each Social Science department. These statistics will be available online and provide a full analysis of website usage on a monthly basis. Information gathered will include:

  • Number of visits
  • Number of unique visitors
  • Duration of visits
  • Days of week and busy hours usage
  • Domains/countries of visitors
  • Most viewed pages
  • Most common entry and exit pages
  • Search engines, key phrases and keywords used to find the site
  • Types of browsers used to access the site and ratio of browser types

FrontPage Extensions

All departmental websites will be converted to FrontPage webs, and departmental webmasters will no longer have to rely on a mapped network drive to author web pages. Instead, webmasters will simply perform an Open Site… command from within FrontPage and enter the unique URL for each of their own departmental websites.

Mapped Network Drives

As a security measure, the ability to map a network drive to the Social Science web server will be limited to an individual’s department. Individuals who maintain course and personal websites within their departmental websites must map/remap a drive to:

\\gemini\www_department$

For example, Economics personnel would map a drive to:

\\gemini\www_economics$

and drill down to their course or personal web pages. \\axis\www$ will no longer be available.