Introduction To Web Applications

Distributed Application Fundamental

A Distributed Application in Operations Manager is an application that is comprised of multiple
objects. These objects may be defined by different management packs and may be managed on the same
agent or on different agents. The purpose of the distributed application is to provide an overall health for
an application that is comprised of different objects.
Distributed applications do not provide any additional monitoring for the objects in an application.
Instead, they include objects that are already being monitored. The value of the distributed application is
to provide a relationship between the health of objects that are part of a single application.
You can create distributed applications using the Distributed Applications Designer in the Operations
console.
Distributed Application Designer
The Distributed Application Designer provides you with the ability to create a distributed application in a
graphical environment with minimal knowledge of the underlying management pack elements that are
created. There are some limitations to the tool though as follows:

The component groups can only have explicit members, which means that you cannot populate
them dynamically. For example, you may have a distributed application with a set of web sites.
You install an additional web server with a site that should be included. You would have to edit
the distributed application and manually add the new site.

You cannot create multiple levels of health rollup. The health of the application will be the worst
health of any of the component groups regardless of the relationships that have been created for
them.

Contents of Distributed Applications

Objects
A distributed application must include one or more objects in order to be useful. Any object discovered by
different management packs installed in the management group can be used in a distributed application.
This might come from a management pack installed from the catalog or one that you have created on your

own. These can be objects created by different monitoring wizards as discussed in Management Pack
Templates.
Component Groups
A component group can contain any number of objects, and any object added to the distributed
application must be contained in a component group. When you create the component group, you specify
one or more classes that the group can contain. Only objects that are instances of these classes may be
added to the particular group. If you specify All Objects then any objects in the management group can
be included in the component group.
If you want to limit the objects that can be included in the component group, then you should select the
Object(s) if the following type(s) and then select one or more classes from the class tree. The tree will
contain all of the classes in the management group which are provided by all the management packs
currently installed.
The dialog box arranges classes in a tree according to their base classes. You can read more about base
classes at Base Classes. If you select a class, then each of its base classes will also be selected. This
allows you to select a single class such as Computer Role that is often used as a base class and
automatically select all of its base classes.
Relationships
Relationships can be drawn between component groups to represent some relation between different
kinds of objects. Health is not rolled up between the component groups, but the relationship is indicated
by lines between the groups.

Client/Server Architecture Application

A network architecture in which each computer or process on the network is either a client or a server.
Servers are powerful computers or processes dedicated to managing disk drives (file servers), printers
(print servers), or network traffic (network servers ). Clients are PCs or workstations on which users run
applications. Clients rely on servers for resources, such as files, devices, and even processing power.
Another type of network architecture is known as a peer-to-peer architecture because each node has
equivalent responsibilities. Both client/server and peer-to-peer architectures are widely used, and each
has unique advantages and disadvantages.

Client-server architectures are sometimes called two-tier architectures.

Characteristics of the Client and the Server

The clients and the servers are the logical entities that work together over a network to accomplish a task.
The distinguishing characteristics of the Client/Server systems are:
1. Service: The client/server is primarily a relationship between processes running on separate machines.
The server process is a provider of services. The client is a consumer of services. In essence,
client/server provides a clean separation of function based on the ideaof service.
2. Shared Resources: A server can service many clients at the same time and regulate their access to
shared resources
3. Asymmetrical protocols: There is a many-to-one relationship between the clients and the server.
Clients always initiate the dialog by requesting a service. Servers are passively awaiting request from the
clients. In some cases a client may pass a reference to a callback object when it invokes a service. This
lets the server call back the client. So the client becomes a server.
4. Transparency of location: The server is a process that can reside on the same machine as the client or
on a different machine across a network. Client/Server software usually masks the location of the
server from the clients by the redirecting the service calls when needed. A program can be a client, a
server, or both.
5. Mix-and-match: The ideal client/server software is independent of hardware or operating system
software platforms. You should be able to mix-and-match client and server platforms.

6. Message-based exchanges: Clients and servers are loosely coupled systems that interact through a
message-passing mechanism. The message is the delivery mechanism for the service request and replies.
7. Encapsulation of services: The server is a specialist. A message tells a server is requested; it is then up
to the server to determine how to get the job done. Servers can be upgraded without affecting the clients
as long as the published message interface is not changed.
8. Scalability: Client/Server systems can be scaled horizontally or vertically. Horizontal scaling means
adding or removing client workstations with only a slight performance impact. Vertical scaling
means either migrating to a larger and faster server machine or distributing the processing load across
multiple servers.
9. Integrity: The server code and server data is centrally managed, which results in cheaper maintenance
and the guarding of shared data integrity. At the same time, the clients remain personal and independent
Merits and Demerits of the Client Server
The Merits of Client/Server Computing
Client/server computing provides the capability to use the most costeffective user interface, data storage,
connectivity, and application services. Frequently, client/server products are deployed within the present
organization but are not used effectively. The client/server model provides the technological means to use
previous investments in concert with current technology options. Organizations see opportunities to use
technology to provide business solutions. Service and quality competition in the marketplace further
increases the need to take advantage of the benefits available from applications built on the client/server
model. Client/server computing in its best implementations moves the data-capture and informationprocessing functions directly to the knowledgeable workerthat is, the worker with the ability to respond
to errors in the data, and the worker with the ability to use the information made available.
1. Enhanced Data Sharing
Data that is collected as part of the normal business process and maintained on a server is immediately
available to all authorized users. The use of Structured Query Language (SQL) to define and manipulate
the data provides support for open access from all client processors and software. SQL grants all
authorized users access to the information through a view that is consistent with their business need.
Transparent network services ensure that the same data is available with the same currency to all
designated users.
2. Integrated Services
In the client/server model, all information that the client is entitled to use is available at the desktop.
There is no need to change into terminal mode or log into another processor to access information.
All authorized information and processes are directly available from the desktop interface. The desktop
toolse-mail, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, and word processingare available and can be used to

deal with information provided by application and database servers resident on the network. Desktop
users can use their desktop tools in conjunction with information made available from the corporate
systems to produce new and useful information.
3. Sharing Resources among Diverse Platforms
The client/server computing model provides opportunities to achieve true open system computing.
Applications may be created and implemented without regard to the hardware platforms or the technical
characteristics ofthe software. Thus, users may obtain client services and transparent access to the
services provided by database, communications, and applications servers. Operating systems software and
platform hardware are independent of the application and masked by the development tools used to build
the application. In this approach, business applications are developed to deal with business
processes invoked by the existence of a user-created "event."
4. Data Interchangeability and Interoperability
SQL is an industry-standard data definition and access language. This standard definition has enabled
many vendors to develop production-class database engines to manage data as SQL tables. Almost all the
development tools used for client/server development expect to reference a back-end database server
accessed through SQL. Network services provide transparent connectivity between the client and local or
remote servers. With some database products, such as Ingres Star, a user or application can define a
consolidated view of data that is actually distributed between heterogeneous, multiple platforms.
Systems developers are finally reaching the point at which this heterogeneity will be a feature of all
production-class database engine products. Most systems that have been implemented to date use a single
target platform for data maintenance. The ability to do high-volume updates at multiple locations and
maintain database integrity across all types of errors is just becoming available with production-level
quality performance and recovery. Systems developed today that use SQL are inherently transparent to
data storage location and the technology of the data storage platform. The SQL syntax does not specify a
location or platform. This transparency enables tables to be moved to other platforms and locations
without affecting the application code. This feature is especially valuable when adopting proven, new
technology or if it makes business sense to move data closer to its owner.
5. Location Independence of Data and Processing
We are moving from the machine-centered computing era of the 1970s and 1980s to a new era in which
PC-familiar users demand systems that are usercentered. Previously, a user logged into a mainframe,
mini-, or micro application. The syntax of access was unique in each platform. Function keys, error
messages, navigation methods, security, performance, and editing were all very visible. Today's users
expect a standard "look and feel." Users log into an application from the desktop with no concern for the
location or technology of the processors involved.

6. In most cases, client-server architecture enables the roles and responsibilities of a computing system to
be distributed among several independent computers that are known to each other only through a network
This creates an additional advantage to this architecture: greater ease of maintenance. For example, it is
possible to replace, repair, upgrade, or even relocate a server while its clients remain both unaware and
unaffected by that change. This independence from change is also referred to as encapsulation.
7. All the data is stored on the servers, which generally have far greater security controls than most
clients. Servers can better control access and resources, to guarantee that only those clients with the
appropriate permissions may access and change data. Since data storage is centralized, updates to that
data are far easier to administer than what would be possible
8. Many mature client-server technologies are already available which were designed to ensure security,
'friendliness' of the user interface, and ease of use. It functions with multiple different clients of different
capabilities
The Demerits of Client/Server Computing
1. Traffic congestion on the network has been an issue. As the number of simultaneous client requests to a
given server increases, the server can become severely overloaded. Contrast that to a P2P network, where
its bandwidth actually increases as more nodes are added, since the P2P network's overall bandwidth can
be roughly computed as the sum of the bandwidths of every node in that network.
2. The client-server paradigm lacks the robustness of a good P2P network. Under client-server, should a
critical server fail, clients requests cannot be fulfilled. In P2P networks, resources are usually distributed
among many nodes. Even if one or more nodes depart and abandon a downloading file, for
example, the remaining nodes should still have the data needed to complete the
download

What Are Client And Server

Client - A client is a single-user workstation that provides presentation services and the appropriate
computing, connectivity and the database services and the interfaces relevant to the business need.
Server- A server is one or more multi-user processors with share memory providing computing,
connectivity and the database services and the interfaces relevant to the business need.
The Client/Server computing is an environment that satisfies the business need by appropriately
allocating the application processing between the client and the server processors. The protocol is the

client requests the services from the server; the server processes the request and returns the result to the
client. The communication mechanism is a message passing InterProcess communication (IPC) that
enables the distributed placement of the client and server processes .
The Client/Server is the generic model and fits what is know in the industry as the cooperating
processing or peer-to-peer. The client/server computing is fundamentally platform independent.
The user of an application wants the functionality (business) it provides; the computing platform provides
access to this business functionality. There are no benefits but a considerable amount of risk of exposing
the platform to the users.The changes in the platform and the underlying technology should be transparent
to the user, as it is understood that the systems built with transparency to the technology, for the entire
user offer the highest probability of solid ongoing return for the technology investment. It is also easily
demonstrable that is the developers become aware of the target platform, development will be bound to
that platform and they will use special tricks and feature found in that specific platform .

Role Of Web Server

Every Web site sits on a computer known as a Web server. This server is always connected to the
internet. Every Web server that is connected to the Internet is given a unique address made up of a series
of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods.for example, 68.178.157.132 or 68.122.35.127.
When you register a Web address, also known as a domain name, such as tutorialspoint.com you have to
specify the IP address of the Web server that will host the site. You can load up with Dedicated Servers
that can support your web-based operations.
There are four leading web browsers: Apache, IIS, lighttpd and Jagsaw. Now we will see these servers in
bit more detail.Apart from these Web Servers, there are other Web Servers also available in the market but
they are very expansive. Major ones are Netscape's iPlanet, Bea's Web Logic and IBM's Websphere .
Here are some advantages of using a web server within the development environment:

Your local website behaves more like the live one. For example, you can configure directory
security, test your custom error pages etc before commiting them to the production environment.

You can use server-side scripting languages such as PHP and ColdFusion.

Allows you to standardize your coding. For example, you can use root-relative paths for your
image references and hyperlinks (i.e. "/directory/image.gif"). In other words, your paths can
represent the website structure, rather than the directory structure of your computer.

Knowledge. The knowledge you gain from using your own web server will help you understand
how it works in the live environment. This will most certainly help you when you need to
communicate with your hosting provider - you'll be able to use terminology that makes it easier
for them to understand your request/issue.

IIS(Internet Information Service)

IIS (Internet Information Server) is a group of Internet servers (including a Web or Hypertext Transfer
Protocol server and a File Transfer Protocol server) with additional capabilities for Microsoft's Windows
NT and Windows 2000 Server operating systems. IIS is Microsoft's entry to compete in the Internet
server market that is also addressed by Apache, Sun Microsystems, O'Reilly, and others. With IIS,
Microsoft includes a set of programs for building and administering Web sites, a search engine, and
support for writing Web-based applications that access databases. Microsoft points out that IIS is tightly
integrated with the Windows NT and 2000 Servers in a number of ways, resulting in faster Web page
serving.
A typical company that buys IIS can create pages for Web sites using Microsoft's Front Page product
(with its WYSIWYG user interface). Web developers can use Microsoft's Active Server Page
(ASP)technology, which means that applications - including ActiveX controls - can be imbedded in Web
pages that modify the content sent back to users. Developers can also write programs that filter requests
and get the correct Web pages for different users by using Microsoft's Internet Server Application
Program Interface (ISAPI) interface. ASPs and ISAPI programs run more efficiently than common
gateway interface (CGI) and server-side include (SSI) programs, two current technologies. (However,
there are comparable interfaces on other platforms.)
Microsoft includes special capabilities for server administrators designed to appeal to Internet service
providers (ISPs). It includes a single window (or "console") from which all services and users can be
administered. It's designed to be easy to add components as snap-ins that you didn't initially install. The
administrative windows can be customized for access by individual customers.