Enterprise Servers (also known as Windows Server System)

Enterprise Servers, now known as members of the Windows Server System (earlier called .NET Enterprise Servers) provide a set of prepackaged functionality that, depending on the particular server, can either be standalone or used in conjunction with custom application development efforts. Most of these servers have support for integration with the .NET platform technology. This means that as a developer, you can use a .NET Framework technology (such as ASP.NET, ADO.NET, XML Web services, programming languages) as a development tool to customize and utilize the prebuilt application functionality and integrate it with your own application.

Key components of the Windows Server System are the following:

  1. Windows 2003 Server— Windows 2003 Server represents the next-generation core server operating system technology, evolving from Windows 2000 and Windows NT operating systems. From a .NET application developer’s perspective, key highlights of Windows 2003 include intrinsic out-of-box support for the .NET Framework, Internet Information Services (IIS 6.0), which provides the basis for running .NET Web applications and Web services, key security and performance enhancements, and Windows SharePoint Services, which provide essential collaboration functionality such as Document Management.
  2. SQL Server— Even though the .NET database connectivity model ADO.NET provides support for integrating .NET applications with multiple databases, SQL Server is and probably will be the choice of database for most new applications developed or migrated to the .NET platform. As highlighted in the preceding chapter of this book, a new release of SQL Server code, named Yukon, is expected to be available; it further integrates with .NET Framework. For instance, Yukon is expected to support the development of stored procedures using a .NET-supported programming language such as C# or Visual Basic .NET. Apart from this, SQL Server supports Web services integration using the SQL Server Web Services Toolkit.
  3. BizTalk Server— Probably the most important server technology apart from Windows 2003 and SQL Server, BizTalk represents core enterprise application integration (EAI) and a B2B integration middleware technology provider. BizTalk Server 2004 (which at the time of writing of this book was in a beta release) probably has the most advanced support for the .NET Framework. BizTalk integrates with Visual Studio .NET to develop loosely coupled integrations with back-end systems, known as orchestrations, and Web services are intrinsically used within the BizTalk framework for integration with internal and external systems. BizTalk server also features an elaborate adapter model that enables orchestrations developed using BizTalk to provide out-of-box support (or using third-party adapters) for integration with popular back-end enterprise systems such as SAP R/3, PeopleSoft, and the like.
  4. Host Integration Server— A complementary technology to BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server provides support for transactional and data integration with legacy “host” applications. Host Integration Server supports data integration with DB2, Flat File on mainframes, AS/400, and transactional access to CICS/IMS transaction environments. The server, which is an evolution from the Microsoft SNA Server product, provides the legacy functionality wrapped as COM+/MSMQ Services.
  5. Commerce Server— Commerce Server provides out-of-box, configurable functionality developing and deploying electronic commerce (eCommerce) storefronts. Both Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) models are supported. Commerce Server leverages SQL Server as its underlying database and uses BizTalk Server to integrate with back-end order fulfillment and inventory systems.
  6. Content Management Server— Content Management Server (CMS) provides out-of-box support for developing Web content management applications. Essentially, Content Management Server can be used to manage a large set of Web sites for a corporation and supports all aspects of content management, including a sophisticated templating mechanism to define the various content types such as a Press Release, content authoring, content approval workflow, and static/dynamic content delivery to Web servers. CMS provides an integration toolkit with Commerce Server to provide authoring support for product information and catalog management.
  7. SharePoint Portal Server— SharePoint Portal Server, also known as Office SharePoint Portal Server because of its integration with Microsoft Office System products, provides a portal framework and serves as the key mechanism for providing a launch pad for integrating several diverse applications from a presentation perspective. Key highlights of SharePoint Portal Server include a Web Parts framework for developing the individual “portlets” of the portal that leverages the .NET Framework, single sign-on facilities to provide seamless access to multiple applications, user profile provisioning, and enterprise search and taxonomy facilities.
  8. Exchange Server— Exchange Server is really the core email based collaboration server of the Windows Server System. It provides support for Internet standards-based (SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Web HTTP/HTTPS) email sending and receiving. In combination with Microsoft Outlook, a key member of the Office System family, Exchange Server can also be used to create workflow applications.
  9. Mobile Information Server— Mobile Information Server, as the name suggests, provides Exchange Server capability over a variety of mobile devices, including mobile phones.
  10. Speech Server— Speech Server is a recent addition to the Windows Server System family and provides the capability to develop or extend existing ASP.NET speech and telephony applications that can be accessed by any regular telephone. Speech Server is essentially the standards- and Web-based IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) enabler for the .NET platform.
  11. Small Business Server— Small Business Server 2003 provides a complete business server solution, bundling and integrating key technologies available in the broad Windows Server System specifically for small and medium businesses. Included in Small Business Server 2003 are Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Exchange Server 2003, Fax Service, ISA Server, SQL Server, and Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003.
  12. Application Center— Application Center provides the much-needed application deployment and management capabilities for high availability of Web-based applications. Essentially, Application Center simplifies deployment of applications into a server farm for high availability (performance, load balancing, and fail over). After it is deployed, Application Center actively monitors performance and health, sending alerts to system administrators if an action needs to be taken, or it can take proactive action, such as restarting servers and services, based on a set of configured rules. All this is pretty much done in a black-box fashion without requiring any application changes.
  13. Operations Manager— Microsoft Operations Manager, also known as MOM, provides operations management capabilities for Microsoft applications and servers through sophisticated event management, proactive monitoring and alerting, reporting, and trend analysis. Through a rich set of management packs, MOM can automatically discover the various infrastructure and server components in a deployment and can monitor key components of the platform, including Active Directory, COM+ Services, network services (DHCP/DNS), IIS, MSMQ, Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC), .NET Framework, Network Load Balancing, Server Clusters, Windows Operating Systems, BizTalk Server, Application Center, Commerce Server, Exchange Server, Host Integration Server, ISA Server, and SQL Server. For instance, the SQL Server module present in the Application Management Pack can monitor such events as the overall availability of SQL Server, connections, process crashing, and memory-allocation problems.
  14. Systems Management Server— Systems Management Server, popularly known as SMS, provides a scalable configuration management platform for Windows desktop and servers. For instance, SMS can be used to deliver key security updates and patches to a farm of servers from a centrally administered console. SMS can also be used to remotely deploy applications to thousands of desktops running within a corporate environment.
  15. ISA Server— Internet Security and Acceleration Server provides a multilayer firewall, proxy, Web cache, VPN, basic intrusion detection, and Internet traffic filtering (email, HTTP, FTP) services to the Microsoft platform.
March 18, 2009 | Filed Under .NET 

Comments



Linux bilbo.nocdirect.com 2.6.18-194.11.4.el5 #1 SMP Tue Sep 21 05:04:09 EDT 2010 x86_64