This document discusses the key components of a web server including hardware, software, and tools. It covers the factors to consider when choosing a web server platform such as the size, purpose, and traffic of the website. It also describes different types of websites and their requirements, and discusses popular web server software options like Apache, Microsoft IIS, and Netscape Enterprise Server.

1. WEBSERVERS – HARDWARE, SOFTWARE &
WEBSERVER TOOLS
PRESENTED BY
AMBILI BABY, NO:03

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• The components of a web server are:
– Hardware
– Software
• When determining what sort of server hardware
and software to use you have to consider:
– Size of the site
– Purpose of the site
– Traffic on the site
• A small, noncommercial Web site will require
less resources than a large, commercial site.
Web servers

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• Facilitates business
– Business to business transactions
– Business to customer transactions
• Hosts company applications
• Part of the communications infrastructure
Poor decisions about web server platforms can
have a negative impact on a company. This is
particularly true for purely online (“click and
mortar”) companies.
The role of a web server

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Will the site be hosted in-house or by a provider?
Factors to consider:
• The bandwidth and availability needed for the
expected size, traffic, and sales of the site
• Scalability: If the Web site needs to grow or has
a sudden increase in traffic, can the provider
still handle it?
• Budget and cost effectiveness of the solution
• Target audience: Business-to-customer (B2C) or
business-to-business (B2B)
Hosting considerations

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• Development sites: A test site; low-cost
• Intranets: Available internally only
• B2B and B2C commerce sites
• Content delivery site
Each type of site has a different purpose,
requires different hardware and software,
and incurs varying costs.
Types of Web sites

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Commerce sites must be available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. Requirements include:
• Reliable servers
• Backup servers for high availability
• Efficient and easily upgraded software
• Security software
• Database connectivity
B2B sites also require certificate servers to issue
and analyze electronic authentication information.
Commerce sites

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• Examples:
 USA Today
 New York Times
 Manoramaonline
• Sell and deliver content: news, summaries,
histories, other digital information.
• Hardware requirements are similar to the
commerce sites.
• Database access must be efficient.
Content delivery site

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Web Clients and Web Servers
• Client/server architectures
– Client computers request
services
– A server processes the clients’
requests
• Web software is platform
neutral, meaning that it lets
different types of servers
communicate with a variety of
clients

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Two-Tier Client/Server Architecture
• Two-tier client/server architecture has one client and one
server

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Three-Tier and N-Tier Client/Server
Architectures
• Three-tier architecture
– Extends two-tier architecture to allow additional processing (e.g., collection
of data from a database) before responses to requests are made
• N-tier architectures
– Higher-order architectures
– Third tier includes software applications that interactively supply and
update information to and from the web server

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• Hardware, operating system, and application server
software must be considered together since each
affects the other.
• Whatever your choice you must ensure that the
server hardware is scalable, meaning that it can be
upgraded or a new server added as necessary.
• Other needs, such as a database server, should be
handled by separate hardware. Database products
have large processing needs.
Web platform choices

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• Hardware and operating system choice
• Speed of connection to the Internet
• User capacity
– Throughput: The number of HTTP requests
that can be processed in a given time period.
– Response time: The amount of time a server
requires to process one request.
• The mix and type of Web pages
– Static pages
– Dynamic pages: Shaped in response to users.
Factors in performance

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• Benchmarking is testing used to compare the
performance of hardware and software.
• Results measure the performance of aspects such
as the OS, software, network speed, CPU speed.
• There are several Web benchmarking programs.
•Anyone considering buying a server for a heavy
traffic situation or wanting to make changes to
an existing system should consider benchmarks.
Benchmarking

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Electronic commerce
• An Web server handles Web pages whereas an
e-commerce server deals with the buying and
selling of goods and services.
• A Web server should handle e-commerce software
since this simplifies adding e-commerce features
to existing sites.
• Features: Creation of graphics, product information,
addition of new products, shopping carts, credit
card processing, sales report generation.

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Web server software
• Three of the most popular Web server programs:
– Apache HTTP Server
– Microsoft Internet Information Server
– Netscape Enterprise Server

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Apache HTTP Server
• Developed by Rob McCool while at UI in the
NCSA in 1994.
• The software is available free of charge and is
quite efficient.
• Can be used for intranets and public Web sites.
• Originally written for Unix, it is now available
for many operating systems.

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Microsoft IIS
• Microsoft’s Internet Information Server comes
bundled with Microsoft’s Windows NT/2000.
• Can be used for intranets and public Web sites.
• It is suitable for everything from small sites to
large enterprise-class sites with high volumes.

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Netscape Enterprise Server
• Costs several thousand dollars and has a 60-day
trial period.
• Can be run on the Internet, intranets and extranets.
• Some of the busiest sites on the Internet use NES
including E*Trade, Excite, and Lycos.
• Runs on many different operating systems.