Offsite Hosting Process

Campus departments may request a berkeley.edu hostname to point to a website built on an "offsite" hosting service. "Offsite" means that the hosting service is external to UC Berkeley. Below is a process summary, and a detailed process description. 

Process Summary

  1. Choose an offsite hosting service.
  2. Create and build the website.
  3. Choose a website Security Contact.
  4. Request the offsite hostname through the campus Socreg asset registration portal.
  5. Provide DNS information to the DNS administrator.

Process Description

Campus departments must first receive approval from the Information Security Office (ISO) to use a berkeley.edu hostname with an offsite hosting service. The approval process is completed via the ISO's Socreg asset registration portal.

To complete the offsite hostname registration process in Socreg the campus department must choose a "Security Contact" for the offsite hostname. A Security Contact is a role used by authorized members to register IT Resources in Socreg and to receive security notices involving those resources. If others in your department have a Security Contact role in Socreg, ask them to request the offsite hostname.

If you do not know your department's Security Contact, you can begin the registration process by logging into Socreg and creating a new offsite hostname registration. ISO staff will help you find your department's Security Contact as part of the registration and approval process.

The Security Contact will need to know the following information in order to register an offsite hostname:

  • Offsite hostname: The requested berkeley.edu hostname.
  • Hosting Service: The offsite hosting service.
  • Data Protection Level: Select the approved Data Protection Level for the service; for example, sites on Pantheon are only approved for Protection Level P1.
  • Description: Simple description of website.
  • Additional notes to DNS Administrator: The DNS (Domain Name System) information provided by the offsite hosting service. The DNS Administrator needs this information in order to point the berkeley.edu hostname to the hosting service in the campus DNS.

Offsite Hosting Resources