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发信人: Lg (创造人生的传奇), 信区: Linux
标题: iServer: Blurring the Boundaries
发信站: BBS 荔园晨风站 (Sun Dec 12 15:38:04 1999), 站内信件

iServer: Blurring the Boundaries

Kevin Reichard

Is iServer 1.6 a Web server or an application server? At the moment, it's a Web
server with
some application-server capabilities, but if Servertec follows through with its
ambitious
object-oriented development plans, in the future iServer will be added to our
application-server listings as well.

iServer, written entirely in Java, has the dual purpose of serving both Web
pages and Java
servlets. On the Web-server side, iServer is a simple multithreaded Web engine
with some
rather nifty features, such as implementing session-manager threads for a
multiserver
environment and maintaining session states. The server supports HTTP 1.1 and
doesn't eat
up a lot of resources: a basic iServer installation takes up 85K and the full
package
occupies around 125K. However, the Web server could be described charitably as
bare-boned: there's no explicit Perl support (although one could implement Perl
through
CGI), for example.

Since it can manage Java servlets, the Servertec folks are making some
grandiose claims for
iServer, saying that it supports the more advanced protocols like IIOP and
CORBA as well as
more pedestrian protocols like ODBC, JDBC, SSI and CGI. But iServer doesn't
appear to
support IIOP and CORBA right out of the box--instead, you'll need to create or
purchase
(iServer does include servlets to enable JDBC and ODBC support.) iScript is a
rather unique
marriage of BASIC and Java, allowing you to create BASIC-like scripts for a Java
environment. The trend in the Web-server world seems to be giving away a Web
server and
then tying users into a non-standard programming language. While there are some
definite
appeals to iScript, there aren't many compelling reasons to use it instead of
Perl or Tcl.

iServer administration is done through Web-based administration. Every aspect
of iServer
can be administered in this fashion, while detailed log files help you track
usage levels and
problems with your site.

As an application server, iServer has some attractive features, including load
balancing
(which allows incoming requests to a cluster to be managed in the most
efficient manner,
which might include redirection to a less busy server), fault tolerance, and
database-connection pooling. These features, which are usually found in
enterprise-level
application servers but not usually in Web servers, allow for a scalable
Web-server
installation--something that's still quite rare in the Linux world.

However, there are some failings in iServer that will cause you to pause before
implementing
it on the enterprise level, scalability aside. Security is subpar when compared
to other
enterprise-level Web server or application servers. There's no provisioning for
RADIUS
authentication or any other third-party authentication. You must set up users,
realms,
access rights, resources, and access control lists by hand--you cannot import
any user lists
from the outside.

iServer is definitely a work in progress, and it will be interesting to watch
this product as it
expands into the application-server space. If you're willing to evolve your own
system as
iServer evolves, then it makes for an attractive tool. But if your needs are of
a more
immediate nature, you'll want to look at a more mature application server or
Web server.

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