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In information technology, a server is a computer system that provides services to other computing systems—called clients—over a network. The term is most commonly applied to a complete computer system today, but it is also used occasionally to refer only to the hardware or software portions of such a system. Information technology (IT) or Information and communication(s) technology (ICT) is a broad subject concerned with technology and other aspects of managing and processing information, especially in large organizations. ...
In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ...
A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ...
Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology. ...
Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...
Description
Servers occupy a place in computing similar to that occupied by minicomputers in the past, which they have largely replaced. The typical server is a computer system that operates continuously on a network and waits for requests for services from other computers on the network. Many servers are dedicated to this role, but some may also be used simultaneously for other purposes, particularly when the demands placed upon them as servers are modest. For example, in a small office, a large desktop computer may act as both a desktop workstation for one person in the office and as a server for all the other computers in the office. HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ...
Servers today are physically similar to most other general-purpose computers, although their hardware configurations may be particularly optimized to fit their server roles, if they are dedicated to that role. Many use hardware identical or nearly identical to that found in standard desktop PCs. However, servers run software that is often very different from that used on desktop computers and workstations.
Servers should not be confused with mainframes, which are very large computers that centralize certain information-processing activities in large organizations and may or may not act as servers in addition to their other activities. Many large organizations have both mainframes and servers, although servers usually are smaller and much more numerous and decentralized than mainframes. Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ...
Servers frequently host hardware resources that they make available on a controlled and shared basis to client computers, such as printers (print servers) and file systems (file servers). This sharing permits better access control (and thus better security) and can reduce costs by reducing duplication of hardware. A printer can be: Someone who operates a printing press, and prints books. ...
In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...
Server hardware Although servers can be built from commodity computer components—particularly for low-load and/or non-critical applications—dedicated, high-load, mission-critical servers use specialized hardware that is optimized for the needs of servers.
For example, servers may incorporate “industrial-strength” mechanical components such as disk drives and fans that provide very high reliability and performance at a correspondingly high price. Aesthetic considerations are ignored, since most servers operate in unattended computer rooms and are only visited for maintenance or repair purposes. Disk Drive is the afternoon show on CBC Radio Two. ...
Non-electric fan Household Electric Fan A fan has two purposes – to move air for creature comfort or for ventilation and to move air or gas from one location to another for industrial purposes. ...
 A picture of the Wikimedia servers Because many server tasks are I/O-bound, much of the cost of a server comes from the cost of high-performance disk drives and I/O interfaces. For example, SCSI disk drives configured in RAID arrays to improve performance and reliability are popular in servers despite their high cost; these same configurations would seem prohibitively expensive and complex to most desktop computer users. And, although servers usually require large amounts of disk space, smaller disk drives may still be used in a trade-off of capacity vs. reliability. Wikimedia servers, by jimbo wales, dual-license gfdl, cc attribution-sharealike Originally uploaded to meta by Kate Turner Copied from http://meta. ...
Wikimedia servers, by jimbo wales, dual-license gfdl, cc attribution-sharealike Originally uploaded to meta by Kate Turner Copied from http://meta. ...
SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface, and is a standard interface and command set for transferring data between devices on both internal and external computer buses. ...
Raid or RAID may refer to: Raid (police action), when police invade a building or area. ...
CPU speeds are far less critical for many servers than they are for many desktops. Not only are typical server tasks likely to be delayed more by I/O requests than processor requirements, but the lack of any graphic user interface in many servers frees up very large amounts of processing power for other tasks, making the overall processor power requirement lower. If a great deal of processing power is required in a server, there is a tendency to add more CPUs rather than increase the speed of a single CPU, again for reasons of reliability and redundancy. A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ...
The lack of a GUI in a server (or the rare need to use it) makes it unnecessary to install expensive video adapters. Similarly, elaborate audio interfaces, joystick connections, USB peripherals, and the like are usually unnecessary.
Because servers must operate continuously and reliably, noisy but efficient and trustworthy fans may be used for ventilation instead of inexpensive and quiet fans; and in some cases, centralized air-conditioning may be used to keep servers cool, instead of or in addition to fans. Special uninterruptible power supplies may be used to ensure that the servers continue to run in the event of a power failure. The external section of a typical single-room air conditioning unit. ...
An uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, is a device or system that maintains a continuous supply of electric power to certain essential equipment that must not be shut down unexpectedly. ...
All servers include heavy-duty network connections in order to allow them to handle the large amounts of traffic that they typically receive and generate as they receive and reply to client requests.
Server software The major difference between servers and desktop computers is not in the hardware but in the software. Servers often run operating systems that are designed specifically for use in servers. They also run special applications that are designed specifically to carry out server tasks. An operating system is a special computer program that manages the relationship between application software, the wide variety of hardware that makes up a computer system, and the user of the system. ...
Operating systems The Microsoft Windows operating system is predominant among desktop computers, but in the world of servers, the most popular operating systems—such as FreeBSD, Solaris, and Linux—are derived from or similar to the UNIX operating system. UNIX was originally a minicomputer operating system, and as servers gradually replaced traditional minicomputers, UNIX was a logical and efficient choice of operating system for the servers. Microsoft Windows is a series of popular proprietary operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...
FreeBSD is a Unix-like free software operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through 386BSD and 4. ...
This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...
Tux is the official Linux mascot. ...
Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...
Server-oriented operating systems tend to have certain features in common that make them more suitable for the server environment, such as the absence of a GUI (or an optional GUI); the ability to be reconfigured (in both hardware and software) to at least some extent without stopping the system; advanced backup facilities to permit online backups of critical data at regular and frequent intervals; flexible and advanced networking capabilities; features (such as daemons in UNIX or services in Windows) that make unattended execution of programs more reliable; tight system security, with advanced user, resource, data, and memory protection, and so on. The term Daemon has several meanings: Daemon (mythology) - see also Demon Daemon (computer software), a background process Dæmon (His Dark Materials) in the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels His Dark Materials Daemon (Warhammer) Daemon (Warcraft) Daemon Sadi (SaDiablo) is a character in the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. ...
Because the requirements of servers are in some cases almost diametrically opposed to those of desktop computers, it is extremely difficult to design an operating system that handles both environments well so operating systems that are well suited to the desktop may not be ideal for servers and vice versa. Nevertheless, certain versions of Windows are also used on a minority of servers as are recent versions of the popular Mac OS X family of desktop operating systems and even some proprietary mainframe operating systems (such as z/OS); but the dominant operating systems among servers continues to be UNIX versions or clones. Even in the case of Linux, a popular UNIX-like operating system frequently used on servers, configurations that are ideal for servers may be unsatisfactory for desktop use, and configurations that perform well on the desktop may leave much to be desired on servers. Mac OS X is a proprietary operating system developed and sold by Apple Computer which is included with all currently shipping Apple Macintosh computers. ...
z/OS Welcome Screen seen through a terminal emulator The title of this article begins with a capital letter due to technical limitations. ...
Tux is the official Linux mascot. ...
The rise of the microprocessor-based server was facilitated by the development of several versions of the Unix operating system to run on the Intel x86 microprocessor architecture, including Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD. The Microsoft Windows family of operating systems also runs on Intel hardware, and versions beginning with Windows NT have incorporated features making them suitable for use on servers. Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...
An operating system is a special computer program that manages the relationship between application software, the wide variety of hardware that makes up a computer system, and the user of the system. ...
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is a U.S.-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ...
x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ...
In computer science, computer architecture is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system. ...
This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ...
Tux is the official Linux mascot. ...
FreeBSD is a Unix-like free software operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through 386BSD and 4. ...
Microsoft Windows is a series of popular proprietary operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. ...
Server applications Server applications are tailored to the tasks performed by servers, just as desktop or mainframe applications are tailored to their own respective environments.
Most server applications are distinguished by the fact that they are completely non-interactive on the local server itself; that is, they do not display information on a screen and do not expect user input. Instead, they run unobtrusively within the server and interact only with client computers on the network to which the server is attached. Applications of this kind are called daemons in UNIX terminology, and services in Windows terminology. The term Daemon has several meanings: Daemon (mythology) - see also Demon Daemon (computer software), a background process Dæmon (His Dark Materials) in the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels His Dark Materials Daemon (Warhammer) Daemon (Warcraft) Daemon Sadi (SaDiablo) is a character in the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. ...
Server applications are typically started once when the server is booted, and thereafter run continuously until the server is stopped. A given server usually runs the same set of applications at all times, since there is no way for the server to predict when a given service might be requested of it by a client computer. Some server applications in some server systems are automatically started when a request from a client is received, and are then stopped when request has been satisfied.
Servers on the Internet Almost the entire structure of the Internet is based upon a client-server model. Many millions of servers are connected to the Internet and run continuously throughout the world. Client/Server is a network application architecture which separates the client (usually the graphical user interface) from the server. ...
Among the many services provided by Internet servers are: the Web; the Domain Name System; electronic mail; file transfer; instant messaging; streaming audio and video, and countless others. Virtually every action taken by an ordinary Internet user requires one or more interactions with one or more servers. This NeXTcube used by Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server. ...
It has been suggested that Domain name be merged into this article or section. ...
Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email, is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ...
It has been suggested that FTP over SSH be merged into this article or section. ...
A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet. ...
Streaming media is just-in-time delivery of multimedia information. ...
Streaming media is just-in-time delivery of multimedia information. ...
History Servers have come into being in parallel with computer networks. Networks allow computers to communicate with each other, and an outgrowth of this was the tendency to dedicate some computers to a serving role while other computers (those that interact directly with human users) assume a client role. Server computers and their associated software evolved to fill the server role.
As networks have grown and developed, so have servers; and minicomputers—small computers larger than a desktop computer but more modest than a mainframe—have been largely driven out of existence in consequence, their niche partially disappearing and partially being absorbed into that of servers.
The rise of corporate computer networks and the Internet among ordinary home and office users have provided a very powerful impetus to the development of servers.
See also Wikibooks has more about this subject: Internet Server Directory Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ...
A mail transfer agent or MTA (also called a mail server, or a mail exchange server in the context of the Domain Name System) is a computer program or software agent that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another. ...
A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet. ...
The term Web server can mean one of two things: A computer that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, which are known as Web browsers, and serving them Web pages, which are usually HTML documents. ...
The term FTP server can mean one of two things: a computer responsible for serving any kind of files, via the File Transfer Protocol to FTP clients which can also web browsers; a software program that implements the FTP protocol and is working as a daemon serving any kind of...
A news server is a set of computer software used to handle Usenet articles. ...
An image server is a type of web server software that is specialized in delivering images. ...
A central ad server is a computer server that stores advertisements and delivers them to web site visitors. ...
// Description A game server is a type of server that game clients connect to. ...
A server log is a file (or several files) automatically created and maintained by a server of activity performed by it. ...
Streaming media is media that is consumed (read, heard, viewed) while it is being delivered. ...
A sound server is software usually running in the background on a PC or Mac to manage the use of and access to audio devices, most notably, the soundcard. ...
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...
Client/Server is a network application architecture which separates the client (usually the graphical user interface) from the server. ...
The history of computing hardware (continued from history of computing hardware) picks up with the development of the integrated circuit. ...
In computing, Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a standard for software componentry, created and controlled by the Object Management Group (OMG). ...
The term dedicated server refers to an advanced form of web hosting in which the customer rents, and has complete control over, an entire server. ...
A print serveris a host computer or device to which one or more printers are connected and which accepts print jobs from external client computers. ...
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