i4 web server retirement

Information and resources regarding the retirement of the i4 web server

i4 Retirement

NYU IT is retiring the ancient i4 web server (i4) in this upcoming AY20-21 year that has long held many Arts and Science websites and web applications.

This retirement is part of moving NYU IT servers to cloud-based services — Amazon Web Service (AWS) — for cost-savings, increased IT security, and code sustainability.

The first recommendation of NYU IT is to retire and remove all websites on the i4 that are no longer in use or needed.  NYU IT (via the Webmaster Support service request form) can provide ZIP download files to website owners for personal or administrative archives.  The i4 web server is not an appropriate place for archiving content no longer needed for public viewing.

The second recommendation of NYU IT is to suggest to the owners of websites on the i4 to move such website needs are better hosted on supported NYU services.  For example:

  • Faculty “CV” sites could be hosted by school-based websites; many school websites have faculty directory sections that can list your publications, research interests, courses taught, etc.
  • The NYU Web Publishing service (powered by Wordpress) is capable of providing basic web content hosting, with a variety of templates approved for accessibility, and with enterprise-level backup and up-time availability.
  • The library also runs NYU Scholars, another platform to archive your list of publications.

The third recommendation is for NYU IT to provide an AWS cloud environment for those who need to retain a “hands on” approach to their website or applications.  But, to be clear, this is not likely a “lift and shift” activity.  Most websites on i4 that are beyond basic HTML will require some re-coding to work with current versions of PHP, Perl, etc. and to be compliant with NYU accessibility standards.

Lastly, expect that the URL to your website will change.  No URL lasts forever.  Link rot is real.  The sooner you move your website to another platform, the sooner NYU IT can put in a redirect to “train” site viewers and search engines to find your new site at its new URL.

Our ask is this:

  • Understand that change is coming.  Please review your current i4 folders(s) hosting your websites or web applications.
  • Delete and download anything no longer needed on the public web server.  The more you prune out the “weeds,” the easier it will be to concentrate on any “flowers” that remain.
  • Consider the alternatives.  Be proactive.

If it has been a long time since you have logged into i4 and need a refresher, please read "Working in i4 with an SFTP client". Questions and concerns regarding the i4 retirement, please reach out to DigiComm at webteam@nyu.edu.

Frequently Ask Questions

I have a personal page/lab page/class site/student project etc. on i4 that I'm actively using, what should I do?

You should immediately reach out to DigiComm via Webmaster Support service request form. While there are several alternative replacements of i4 that we can recommend, DigiComm can provide more insight on what exactly you can do with your content on i4.

How do I find out if my site contains any links to the i4?

The quickest way to find out if your site contains any links to the i4 webserver (i4) is to perform a search in the AEM.

  1. Navigate to your site where you can see all the child pages within the landing page. *
  2. Click on the Search from the Action bar to activate the search panel (Figure 1).
  3. Type in the specific keyword in the Keyword field (Figure 2). Your site might contain links to several parts of the i4. You should perform the following keyword search to make sure your site does not contain any links to the i4. Make sure the keyword contains the quotes (").
    • Arts and Science: "www.nyu.edu/as/"
    • Faculty of Arts and Science: "www.nyu.edu/fas/"
    • College of Arts and Science: "www.nyu.edu/cas/"
    • Graduate School of Arts and Science: "www.nyu.edu/gsas/"
    • For the department that has its own webserver/subdomain before the AEM-era, you might also want to search for the following keyword:
      • Economics: "econ.nyu.edu" or "www.nyu.edu/econ"
      • Psychology: "psych.nyu.edu" or "www.nyu.edu/psych"
  4. Press the Enter/Return on your keyboard to initiate the search.
  5. Wait for the system to return any search results. The search result only lists any pages that contain the link to the i4 web server. It will not tell you where the link is. You will need to open the page individuality and look for the link.
  6. Update any links that are still pointing to the i4.

* Due to the site hierarchy, you will not be able to get any search results on the department/program landing page. Please manually review the landing page and update any links that point to the i4.

I found links on our website that are still pointing to the i4 webserver (i4), what should I do now?

Upon finding any links to the i4, you should evaluate the content and determine the course of action appropriately:

  • For content that is owned by the department but has not migrated to the department website, please consider moving it now. You can either create a new page for the content or integrate it into the existing one.
  • For form or script that is owned and is being used by the department, please reach out to DigiComm via Webmaster Support service request form. They will be able to assist you to move the form or script to another location.
  • For content that is not owned by your department but your department is using it, please reach out to the content owner to see if that specific content already exists somewhere else. If not, please encourage the content owner to move that content away from i4 due to the webserver retirement.
  • For faculty personal page, class, student project/group, etc, please coordinate with the content owner to see if he/she still needs that content online. If so, consider moving it to an alternative hosting. You can read about alternative hosting options in the i4 Retirement section above. If you have any questions, please reach out to DigiComm at webteam@nyu.edu.