The primary function of a web server is to deliver web pages on request to clients, using

the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This means delivery of HTML documents and
any additional content that may be included in a document, such as images, style
sheets and scripts.
A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiates communication by
making a request for a specific resource using HTTP, and the server responds with the
content of that resource or an error message if unable to do so. The resource is typically
a real file on the servers secondary storage, but this is not necessarily the case and
depends on how the web server is implemented.
While the primary function is to serve content, a full implementation of HTTP also
includes ways of receiving content from clients. This feature is used for submitting web
forms, including uploading of files.
Many generic web servers also support server-side scripting using Active Server Pages
(ASP), PHP, or other scripting languages.
Web servers are not always used for serving the World Wide Web. They can also be
ound embedded in devices such as printers, routers and webcams, serving only a local
letwork. The web server may then be used as a part of a system for monitoring and/ r
administering the device in question. This usually means that no additional software as
to be installed on the clients computer, since only a web browser is required (which ow
is included with most operating systems).
Types of Web Servers
2.2.1 Apache HTTP Server (or Apache) is the most popular web server on the web
since 1996. Apache is developed and maintained by the Apache Software Foundation.
The software is produced under the Apache license, which is a free and open source.
Apache is available for a range of operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Novel,
Netware, Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, and FreeBSD.
2.2.2 Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). This is the second most popular
web server on the web. IIS comes as an optional component of most Windows
operating systems. You can install ISS using Add/remove windows components from
Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
2.2.3 Sun Java System Web Server: Based on the Sun One Web Server, the Sun Java
Web Server is designed for medium to large business applications. Sun Java Web
Server is available for most operating system.
Older, legacy application databases and transaction management applications are part
of the back end or third tier. The application server is the middleman between browser-
based front-ends and back-end databases and legacy systems.
In many usages, the application server combines or works with a Web (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol) server and is called a Web application server. The Web browser
supports an easy-to-create HTML-based front-end for the user. The Web server
provides several different ways to forward a request to an application server and to
forward back a modified or new Web page to the user. These approaches include the
Common Gateway Interface (CGI), FastCGI, Microsofts Active Server Page, and the
Java Server Page. In some cases, the Web application servers also support request
brokering interfaces such as CORBA Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (HOP).
.
2.2.5 Advantages of application servers
Data and code integrity By centralising business logic on an individual server or
on a small number of server machines, updates and upgrades to the application for all
users can be guaranteed. There is no risk of old versions of the application accessing or
manipulating data in an older, incompatible manner.
. Centralised configuration. Changes to the application configuration, such as a move of
database server, or system settings, can take place centrally
savings to an organization developing enterprise applications. In practice, however, the
technical challenges of writing software that conforms to that paradigm, combined with
the need for software distribution to distribute client code, somewhat negates these
benefits.
Transaction Support. A transaction represents a unit of activity, in which many
updates to resources (on the same or distributed data sources) can be made atomic (as
an individual unit of work). End-users can benefit from a system-wide standard
behavior, from reduced time to develop, and from reduced costs. As the server does a
lot of the tedious code-generation, developers can focus on business logic.
i Java application servers. The Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE defines
the core set of API and features of Java Application Servers which came about as a
result of the Java Community Process. This definition of an application server is very
specific; its specifications are that formal documents and application servers must meet
their requirements and be tested in order to be Java EE certified.
Commercial, non open-source, Java application servers have been dominated by
WebLogic Application Server by Oracle and WebSphere Application Server from IBM.
Open source application servers include JOnAS from Object Web, JBoss AS from
JBoss (division of Red Hat), Geronimo from Apache, TomEE from Apache, Resin Java j
Application Server from Caucho Technology, Blazix from Desiderata Software, Enhydra
I Server from Enhydra.org, and GlassFish from Oracle.
 Web Server
It is a program which uses the Client/Server model
and Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to serve
files to web users. The files are served in the form
of web pages.
Web server came into existence in 1989 when Tim
Berners- Lee wrote two programs as part of his
new project for European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN). It led to the execution of the first
web server.
A computer program or a dedicated computer
itself can be a web server.
It accepts HTTP requests from clients and provides
HTTP responses. It can also return data in the form
of HTMLdocuments and other objects linked to
them.
Web-based applications such as Servlets and JSP
are served by a Web Server.
The most important function of a web server is to
keep files for web-browsing always active.
Downtime, which is the time during which a web
sites pages are not available to be viewed, should
be lesser than a fraction of a second.
Multi-threading is not supported in web servers.
The load limit of a web server is restricted. It can
handle only a said number of concurrent hits. The
number of connections per IP address by default is
between 500 and 1000 but it can go from 2 to
60000. Only a particular number of requests can
be served by a web server in one second.
Web servers can deploy only files
having .war extension.
Web server cannot be configured to work as an
application server.
Resource Utilization is low.
Application Server
It is a server program which resides in a computer
inside a distributed network. Business logic for an
application-server implementation is provided by
this server program.
Application server came into existence for the first
time in 1990s.
It is a type of software engine.
It provides different applications to other devices
connected in a network.
Application Server can serve enterprise based
applications such as EJBs along with web based
applications like Servletsand JSP. An application
server can have a built-in web server.
Application server provides the facility for easily
accessing an applications data. This enhances the
availability of files and hence helps in lowering the
downtime of a website.
Application servers make use of multi-threading
and concepts like connection pooling, isolation
pooling etc. to make intercommunication between
reliant applications possible. For example, web
browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome etc.
are local programs on the hard drive of a user but
the web pages that are requested by the user using
these browsers are not local. They are located on
the web server. Application
server have middleware packages to enable such
communication.
The load limit is much higher of an application
server than that of a web server. This is because an
application server has a higher capacity.
Application server can deploy .ear files as well
as .war files.
Application servers are much more dynamic in
behaviour. They can be configured to work as web
servers.
Resource utilization is high.
Web Servers usually come packaged with larger
programs for downloading requests for FTP files,
building web pages, publishing web pages and
serving e-mail etc.
Server-side scripting is supported by many web
servers. This means that we can script the
behavior of a web server in different files without
changing the actual server.
Caching and scalability features for web access are
provided by Web servers.
Examples of web server are Apache, Microsofts
Internet Information Server
(IIS) , Novells Web Server etc.
It acts like an intermediary between the front-ends
which are browser based and the back-ends which
are databases and transaction servers.
It is a set of components which can be accessed by
software developer using an API. Clustering, fail-
over, load-balancing, web page generation etc. are
handled by application server.
These features are not provided by Application
servers.
Examples of Application server are JBoss(Red
Hat), JRun(Adobe), WebLogic Server(BEA) etc.