Web Stack Series Part 1: The Physical Server

June 30, 2007 | Filed Under Technology

This is the first installment of our first series: The Web Stack Explained. Today we are going to talk about the first level of the stack: the physical server. HAL 9000

Techies love talking about servers and networking infrastructure. Let me tell you a little secret: a server is just a computer; no more, no less. In fact, the computer you are using right now is just as well suited to be a server as any “real” server. Servers are just beefed up computers that are hooked into really fast and reliable networks. Plunk your computer on the same network and install the appropriate software and no one would know the difference. HAL 9000 couldn’t hold a candle to the speed demon sitting under your desk.

By definition, a server (or server computer) is a type of computer that is built specifically for running applications and software that require large amounts of processing power in high-availability environments. What does that mean? Servers are computers on steroids; they are really fast and really reliable. Head on over to Wikipedia for a more detailed definition of a server.

Web servers are basically responsible for two things: storing website files and running the webserver software. Often, large websites have lots of files (think of all those photos that Flickr stores) and must process millions of requests per minute. As a consequence, the server must have lots of storage space and processing power. In many cases, several servers will be linked together to form a “cluster” to accommodate these large storage and processing requirements. Clusters are essentially a bunch computers working together as if they were one; they simply distribute the task of storing and processing websites across themselves to keep up with the workload. We’ll go over the webserver software in more detail later, but for now you just need to know that it is an application running on the server that handles requests for the website.

Although all of the individual components inside of a server are similar to what you can find in your desktop computer, the server hardware is typically more powerful, or is installed in greater quantities. For example, these days you can expect the average desktop computer to have anywhere from 512 megabytes to 2 gigabytes of memory. In comparison, server computers usually have more than 4 gigabytes of memory installed. Additionally, servers typically have faster processors than standard desktop computers.

When your users request a page from your website, the server is what gets the party started. The webserver software (which will talk in more detail about later) running on the server computer receives the request, processes the request, and then returns the appropriate files, usually in the form of an HTML web page. Think of the server as the permanent home of your website files. It’s that simple!

So how do you get a server? For most, the easiest route is using a third party service called a web host. Web hosting is a topic all in itself, but basically a web host is a way of leasing space on mega-servers instead of buying and maintaining your own server. It’s really easy to find cheap (but quality) web hosting these days, but I’ll discuss that in a later post.

In the next part of this series, I will be talking specifically about the webserver software that processes user requests. Stay tuned!

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