Confusing IT Terms 1

[Dimandja]

Server.

1. An application?
2. A dedicated computer?
3. Both?

 

[CajunCenturion]

Back to the server and/or platform (and I don't mean the train station) ...

Good Luck
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[Mr3Putt]

Dimandja

For me, the answer to your initial question is "C: both".

The server houses applications that serve data on demand, therefore, the application "serves" data to the client, and the machine serves up the application.

Or something like that. Whatever the answer turns out to be, you can now eliminate "C: both" from the running. I'm always wrong.

 

[Genimuse]

I am suggesting that a computer with an operating system that is in place in the network design as a server is a server. And yes, it can do all kinds of nice things without additional software (file storage, logons, DHCP, etc.). Software on the server designed to do server-related things (which includes that OS stuff, really), is "server software," not "server." In my book, anyway.

 

[MakeItSo]

Reminds me of the Master/Slave hard disk discussion in thread717-716343
:-D

[blue]The last voice we will hear before the world explodes will be that of an expert saying:
"This is technically impossible!" - Sir Peter Ustinov[/blue]

 

[jwenting]

Server is purely the software though marketing has corrupted the term to point to the hardware as well (or instead).

A good example is X. The workstations (which are often called clients...) run an X server while the backend (usually referred to as the server) runs the X clients.

That same backend will typically also run one or more of mailserver, database server, webserver, etc. etc.

All the machines may well run the same version of the same operating system.

On my machine at home I run a mailserver, a web application server and a database server.
I also run a mail client, a web browser (so a web application client), and many other programs.
In fact the web applications running within the web application server are themselves clients to the database server.

 

[MakeItSo]

I run a mailserver, a web application server and a database server

Call it playing with words, but I'd say instead:
My computer serves as a mail client, as an application server, a database server (SQLServer), and as Web server.
So when I log into the webroot of my comuter with e.g. my notebook, I consider the main computer as server and my notebook as client.
I would clearly distinguish between Server (nothing but a normal PC), and "Mail server" <- the function of this PC.

So it's neither, as CajunCenturion discovered from the very start. It is nothing but a term for the respective function of a PC.

[blue]The last voice we will hear before the world explodes will be that of an expert saying:
"This is technically impossible!" - Sir Peter Ustinov[/blue]

 

[Dimandja]

I tend to agree with MakeItSo and CajunCenturion. The term server should be relative.

I find it almost impossible to look at a single application or a lone piece of hardware and call it "server". But when put into context, or as MakeItSo said, when it's function is identified, then it becomes appropriate to apply the "server" label.

I also remember working on some communication software that enabled a "server" application to initiate a dialog with a "client"; thus reversing the roles.

 

[RodKnowlton]

And yes, it can do all kinds of nice things without additional software (file storage, logons, DHCP, etc.). Software on the server designed to do server-related things (which includes that OS stuff, really), is "server software," not "server.

If you're talking about providing file storage for other computers and centralized logons, then you've just listed three server applications that are delivered with the OS.

I agree that it's "server software" when distinguishing between it and other, non-server, software on the machine.

But if we change our perspective and consider a single application, say the DHCP server, and its interaction with software on other machines (in this case, DHCP clients), then the application is a server.

So I guess that the answer to the question "What is a server?" is dependent on context.

If I'm looking at a network diagram with unlabeled machines and ask which ones are servers, I'm talking about machines.

If I'm talking about a client/server software installation and ask where the server will be installed, "server" refers to the application that is to serve the client applications.

If we're limited to using existing server machines for new installations of server software, I might ask which server we'll be installing the server on.

"That is something up with which I will not put."
- Winston Churchill, regarding the prohibition on ending sentences with prepositions.

Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L
CompTIA Linux+
CompTIA Security+

 

[CajunCenturion]

I tend to agree with MakeItSo and CajunCenturion.

Excuse me while I get up off the floor.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Dimandja]

>Excuse me while I get up off the floor.

Sure, come on up. If we only knew what you meant...

 

[kmcginn]

This has been an interesting discussion to me. I always thought of the term server to refer to the hardware, never the application. When I talk about a server application, I always mean the application that runs on the server, serving the client, or enduser, hardware and software. Interesteting to hear the other views.

Dimandja, I think cc's comment was a referenc to the fact that you don't usually agree with him and it threw him for a loop! Let's play nice, guys and not get into a heated scene her!

 

[Dimandja]

When you hear the term "platform" (in IT, of course), what comes to mind?

 

[CajunCenturion]

My first reaction was Operating System.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[MakeItSo]

In general OS. Although all "defining" hardware also belongs to it, I'd think.

So my platform is e.g. Win 2k Pro on a 3 GHz, 512 MB Ram Dell.
Harddisk size is not what I'd call "defining", so I wouldn't count it to platform either.
Perhaps the network card could als count in.


[blue]The last voice we will hear before the world explodes will be that of an expert saying:
"This is technically impossible!" - Sir Peter Ustinov[/blue]

 

[Dimandja]

Bandwidth.

1. Speed?
2. Capacity?
3. Size?
4. All the above?
5. None the above?

 

[ZoomerZ]

What happened to waiter and waitress?"
They've been promoted to a Table Attendnts...yeah, both or so I've heard