Research Support Handbook

Running Web Applications

last modified

April 23, 2026

Server OS: Linux

This guide assumes you are running Linux. Unless your particular application does not support it, it is strongly recommended to run web applications on a Linux server, especially those based on Open Source technology.

Domain Name

IT for Research (ITvO) can easily configure a domain inside .labs.vu.nl for your server. It is also possible to use other custom domains, contact ITvO for advice.

HTTPS

A web application exposed to the internet should only be accessible by HTTPS. ITvO can configure automatically renewing Let’s Encrypt certificates for servers in the .labs.vu.nl domain.

NGINX

The ITvO Team recommends using NGINX as webserver, it is light-weight, secure and easy to maintain. ## Security Considerations

Warning

Do not store any (privacy) sensitive data on a server that is accessible from the internet unless you have discussed and implemented extra security measures with the ITvO team!