#3: Web Server Hardware and Software

Question 1

The three main elements of a Web server

Answer 1

– Hardware
– Operating system software
– Web server software

Question 2

Types of Web Site

Answer 2

– simple development sites
– Intranets
– information-only sites
– business-to-business portals
– Storefronts
– Content-delivery sites

Question 3

Development Sites (stand alone)

Answer 3

simplest Web site and the least costly to implement
developed with low-cost Web site building tools, e.g. Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver
Testers can access the site through their PCs on the existing LAN.

Question 4

Intranet

Answer 4

Corporate intranets
– house internal memos,
– corporate policy handbooks,
– expense account worksheets,
– budgets,
– newsletters,
– a variety of other corporate documents.
Intranets are shielded from the Internet and they do not require additional security software

Question 5

Extranet

Answer 5

It’s intranets that allow certain authorized parties outside the company to access certain parts of the information stored in the system.
e.g. VPN, Secured Site (HTTPS)

Question 6

Transaction-Processing Sites

Answer 6

Either business-to-business or business-to-consumer electronic commerce sites which are available 24/7.
High-reliability servers
– Require spare server computers to handle high traffic volumes
– Transaction-processing sites must also run security software

Question 7

Content-Delivery Sites

Answer 7

• Content-delivery sites deliver contents
  – e.g. news, histories, summaries, and other digital information.
• Able to be presented rapidly on the visitor’s screen
• Must be updated frequently
• Able to locate articles quickly with a fast and precise search engine.

Question 8

Web Clients and Servers

Answer 8

• Visitor on the Web is the Web client computers on a worldwide client/server network.
• Client/server architectures are used in LANs, WANs, and the Web.
• Web software is platform neutral, letting computers communicate with each other easily.

Question 9

Dynamic Content

Answer 9

non- static information constructed in response to a Web client’s reques

Question 10

Meanings of “Server

Answer 10

any computer used to provide files to other computers connected to it through a
network

Server software
– Database server

Question 11

Operating Systems for Web Servers

Answer 11

A computer must have an operating system to run programs and keep track of multiple users
logged on to the system. It must also ensure that they do not interfere with one another

Question 12

Web Server Software

Answer 12

Apache, HTTP Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and iPlanet Enterprise
Serve

Question 13

Web Site and Internet Utility Programs

Answer 13

Finger, Tracert, Ping

Question 14

Finger

Answer 14

program that runs on UNIX operating systems. It allows users to obtain information about other network users. Many organizations have disabled Finger commands for privacy and security reasons

Question 15

Tracert

Answer 15

sends data packets to every computer on the path (Internet) between
computers and clocks the packet’s round-trip times

Question 16

Ping (Packet Internet Groper)

Answer 16

tests the connectivity between two computers connected to
the Internet

Question 17

Electronic Mail (e-mail)

Answer 17

convey messages
within seconds

drawbacks:
– Spam or junk mail:
* Wastes time and disk space
* Often contains offensive content that poses risks for employers
– Viruses:
* Can be carried by email and infect entire systems
– Time
– Business people can spend up to two hours a day responding to messages

Question 18

Telnet

Answer 18

allows users to log on to a computer that is connected to the Internet

Question 19

FTP, File Transfer Protocol

Answer 19

part of the TCP/IP rules that defines the formats used to
transfer files between TCP/IP computers.

Can transfer files one at a time, or several at once
o Displays remote and local computers’ directories
o Has built-in error controls to copy files accurately

Question 20

Indexing and Searching

Answer 20

Search engines, or search tools, search either a specific site or the entire Web for requested documents

An indexing program can provide full-text indexing that generates an index for all documents
stored on a server.

Question 21

Data Analysis

Answer 21

Web servers can capture:
– visitor information,
– data about who is visiting a Web site
– how long the visitor’s browse the site
– the date and time of each visit
– and which pages were displayed

Analog Web server log file analyzer
WebTrends Web server log file analyzer.

Question 22

Remote Server Administration

Answer 22

• administrator can control a Web site from any Internet-connected computer.
  – Remote service maintenance
  – Remote backup

Question 23

Web Server Hardware

Answer 23

process and respond to Web client requests sent
using HTT

Web server computers have more memory, larger and faster hard disk drives, and
faster processors than typical desktop or notebook PCs.

Question 24

virtual server, or virtual host

Answer 24

virtual server, or virtual host, is a feature that maintains more than one server on one machine.

Question 25

Web Server Performance Evaluation

Answer 25

Benchmarking is a form of testing used to compare the performance of hardware and software.
Hardware and operating systems are key areas for benchmarking. The speed of its connection
can affect a Web server’s performance.
Throughput and response time can be used to measure a server’s Web page delivery capability.

Question 26

Web Server Hardware Architectures

Answer 26

large collections of servers that these sites have are called server farms
architecture, which uses a few very large and very fast computers
decentralized architecture, which uses a large number of servers. Most large decentralized sites use load-balancing systems.

Question 27

Load-Balancing Systems

Answer 27

load-balancing switch is a piece of network hardware that monitors the workloads of the
servers attached to it and assigns incoming Web traffic to the server that has the most available
capacity

traffic that enters the site from the Internet, encounters
the load-balancing switch, which then directs the traffic to the Web server best able to handle
the traffic