The OIT Linux environment is a robust, full-stack LAMP service running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. After creating an account, UT students can build websites, compile programs, edit files, and more. These accounts may be subject to restrictions regarding the resources available, and the features provided, and as such, may not be suitable for all cases. See Rules and Restrictions below.

Creating an Account

All Linux accounts are created with a unique NetID, which will be the name/owner of the Linux account.

Request an Account

Rules and Restrictions

• Students registered for approved courses are eligible for a Linux account to be used for coursework and assignments until the end of the academic period.
• Accounts should not be used for department or research purposes or for non-University-related business.
• Do not store sensitive data (e.g., HIPAA, FERPA, PCI, etc.) or data needed by high-profile applications.
• The available resources are shared by all users, as with all multi-user systems. OIT has placed reasonable user restrictions on those resources to foster a positive user experience. Periodically, admins must take more severe actions to ensure the well-being of the majority.

Manage Your Account

Sign in to manage your account

Accessing Your Account

Sign into the VPN to access your account. Detailed instructions are available in the OIT Knowledge Base.

You can log into the Linux server with any SSH client (e.g., PuTTY) or SFTP client (e.g., WinSCP, Cyberduck, or FileZilla) using the information below. Detailed instructions are available in an OIT Knowledge Base article.

Host: linux.oit.utk.edu
Port: 22 (SSH)
Username: netid
Password: your NetID password

Website Hosting

If you intend to use your account as a website, create a folder in your account named public_html and store your web content there. The folder and file permissions must be set to 755 to allow world read access to the content you wish to be visible on the site.

Once you have created your website folder, your default web URL will be in the following format:

https://volweb.utk.edu/~netid

Creating a WordPress Site

You may install WordPress on your personal site. Here are a few things to be aware of prior to installation:

• Contact the OIT HelpDesk before installing WordPress to ensure the proper permissions are set.
• Request or set up a MySQL database.

OIT scans websites and automatically removes WordPress plugins that have been determined to negatively impact the performance, security, and/or reliability of the web server. See list of plugins that currently fall in this category.

Follow these steps for setting up WordPress on the OIT Linux environment, or contact the OIT HelpDesk to set up a consultation.

Basic Server Configuration

• Red Hat Linux
• Apache
• PHP
• MySQL/MariaDB
• 1 GB Quota