Website Development

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Website Development Management
MIS 3353 -- Fall 2004

• Intro to Web Server Administration

Instructor John Seydel, Ph.D.
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Student Objectives

• Summarize the functions of a web server
• Discuss the major web server software available
• Work with IIS to enable web services
• Install and configure IIS
• Create virtual directories
• Create web applications
• Modify settings on folders and applications

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Web Servers

• Basics
• AKA HTTP servers
• Service requests from clients (browsers)
• Forward (if necessary) to
• Database servers
• Application servers
• Provide administration and security features for
  web management
• Process differs for static and dynamic web pages
• Static pages never changing brochureware
• Dynamic content (and even display) based upon
  interaction with user
• Draw information from databases
• Update databases
• eBusiness integrates servers, applications, and
  databases among users and suppliers . . .

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eBusiness Data Access
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Server Hardware

• Just about any computer can be a server
• Powerful multi-user hardware
• Lightweight personal machine
• Vary based upon
• OS (not really hardware, but treat as such)
• Number/power of processors
• RAM
• Hard drive space
• Organizational needs will dictate the appropriate
  configurations

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Server Software

• Top four
• Apache (open source) 11.1 million sites
• IIS (Windows) 4.1 million sites
• Zeus 0.3 million sites
• SunONE (replaces/extends iPlanet) 0.2 million
  sites
• Features to expect
• User management, authentication, etc.
• Cookies support
• Editing features
• Server-side script processing (e.g., CGI, ASP,
  PHP)
• Flexible event logging
• See www.netcraft.com/survey

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Apache Server

• OS supported
• Windows, OS/2, Unix, Linux
• Most common Linux
• Open source whats that mean?
• Robust design and extensibility
• Not a dummies tool
• No GUI
• No browser-based maintenance
• Essentially all command line driven

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Internet Information Server

• Actually Internet Information Services (IIS 5)
• On the plus side
• Intuitive GUI
• Essentially as powerful/capable as Apache
• Incorporates WebDAV (web-based distributed
  authoring versioning)
• Emerging standard for simplifying intranet
  construction
• and enabling multiple users to publish to common
  web
• server
• Additional benefit Supports ASP
• Downside works only on Windows (what else would
  you expect from Microsoft!)
• Growing in popularity (?)

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Other Web-Related Servers

• Create multi-tiered architecture
• Include
• Application servers (sometimes middleware)
• A/V servers (especially valuable for streaming)
• Database servers
• Exchange servers (support collaboration email)
• Proxy servers (involve cache management)
• Security servers (e.g., firewalls)
• Offload processing and storage
• From server
• From client
• Can be in same or multiple boxes

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Multi-Tiered Internet Database Access Architecture
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Choosing Your Server

• First, what applications will be needed
• ASP or ASP.NET
• Cold Fusion
• CGI
• Extensions FrontPage, DreamWeaver, . . .
• Then, what server software is required to run
  those applications
• Next, what OS will support that server software?
• Finally, choose the hardware that can support
• Software configuration
• Traffic expected
• Connection with database and applications
• Network

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Server Selection Considerations

• Keep in mind that eCommerce requires more power,
  memory, speed than static web applications
• Needs assessment
• Site traffic
• Concurrent users
• Bandwidth could be limitation
• Plan for three years growth
• Scalability (size)
• Extensibility (functionality)
• Hardware/software selection popularity,
  capacity, reliability, performance,
  compatibility, upgradeability, price, support
• See server ratings (various sources)

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Now, a Closer Look at IIS

• More, specifically, lets work with ISM
• Internet Services Manager
• Interface for administering websites
• Get to it
• Start Control Panel Administrative Tools
• Create a shortcut to it on the desktop
• Of course, IIS must first have been installed
• Snap-in component for Win2000
• Default installation for WinXP

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Virtual Directories

• Associates URL alias with physical folder
• Enable direct navigation to resources on server
• Process
• Start IIS
• Go to default website
• Right-click New Virtual Directory Wizard .
  . .
• Accept defaults web application created
• Read only wont run server-side scripts
• Can create at the root level or further down
• URL http//localhost/virtualDirectoryName
• Demonstration . . .

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IIS Adjusting the Settings

• On virtual folder or application
• Right-click
• Select Properties
• Same dialog box results, but settings will differ
  for applications and virtual folders
• Some important ones
• Default Read, Log visits, Indexing
• Consider also Directory browsing
• Documents tab set default documents ( order)
• Can convert
• Virtual directory to application (Create button)
• Application to virtual directory (Remove button)
• Demonstration HitCounter . . .

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IIS Fixing It To Run .NET Files

• Recall
• Win2000 doesnt have IIS installed by default
• WinXP may or may not have IIS already installed
• IIS needs to be installed before VStudio
• Otherwise
• The web server fails to process .aspx files
  before sending them to the browser
• Standard .asp files are preprocessed
• But for .aspx files raw code is sent to the
  browser
• However, theres apparently a fix i.e., VStudio
  may not need to be reinstalled
• Windows Component Update disk
• Has a utility that seems to repair the problem
• If needed, request more info

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Summary of Objectives

• Summarize the functions of a web server
• Discuss the major web server software available
• Work with IIS to enable web services
• Install and configure IIS
• Create virtual directories
• Create web applications
• Modify settings on folders and applications

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Appendix
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What Happens When You View a Web Page?

• The same process applies whether you
• Click on a link or
• Type a URL into the address bar
• HTTP request is then sent to server at designated
  URL
• Includes header info
• Requests file
• Server then returns HTTP response
• Includes header info
• Contains file
• Repeated as client (i.e., user agent) interprets
  file

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Browser/Server Interaction
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HTTP Request Example

• Request
• GET/index.html?namejuliesmithID12234
• /HTTP/www.astate.edu
• /HTTP1.1
• Header
• Useragent IE 5.0
• Accept /
• Date 10/24/02
• Body
• (empty)
• Note a wealth of information!

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HTTP Response Example

• Response
• HTTP1.1/200
• Header
• Server IIS 50
• Date 10/24/02
• Body
• lthtmlgt
• . . .
• lt/htmlgt

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Browser/Server Interaction
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Servers at Active Websites
Source www.netcraft.com/survey