About HTTP Server
The HTTP Server for i is a complete Web server product which offers several components and features to assist in your web site configuration and development.
Besides installing the HTTP Server (5722-DG1), there are other products and i5/OS options that you will need to run your web server. For a complete list, reference the Redbook HTTP Server (powered by Apache): An Integrated Solution for IBM iSeries Servers (Chapter 2.1 - Before you Start).
The HTTP Server (powered by Apache) embraces features of the open-source Apache HTTP server software, regularly incorporating the lastest levels of Apache. In addition, a graphical user interface is provided for easily configuring your server. Other useful features are also shipped providing a complete and easy-to-use web serving product.
HTTP Server (powered by Apache) incorporates all the latest features of Apache as well as integrating the security and functionality of i5/OS. One of the key differentiators of i5/OS is the many built-in features and services that make the platform one of the most secure in the market. The HTTP Server (powered by Apache) also includes many security functions to extend the i5/OS security to the Web Environment.
HTTP Server (powered by Apache) provides excellent performance for Web serving. For example, dynamic caching of web pages gives you better static page serving performance using local caching, proxy caching, or Fast Response Cache Accelerator (FRCA). File compression using the mod_deflate module increases network performance. To view the performance statistics of your server, use the Real Time Server Statistics tool that is available on the Configuration and Administration interface.
For HTTP server performance information and capacity planning tools, refer to the iSeries Performance Capabilities Reference and the IBM Workload Estimator on the iSeries Performance Management web page.
More features of HTTP Server (powered by Apache) are described under Getting Started.
The IBM Web Administration for i5/OS GUI provides a Web based server management and creation interface that is rich in function, examples, and error-checking. It also provides many easy to use wizards to help users accomplish many difficult tasks.
The GUI supports the Web technologies listed below and helps the user integrate these technologies into a useful production ready Web environment. Wizards create and configure each of the technologies. Once a server has been created, additional functions can be used to manage these servers, including starting, stopping, viewing logs, and several other important functions.
- HTTP Server (Powered by Apache)
- IBM WebSphere Application Server
- Express/Base V5.0 and 5.1
- Express/Base/ND(stand alone only) V6.0
- IBM WebSphere Portal
- IBM Workplace
- Workplace Collaboration Services V2.5 and 2.6
- Workplace Services Express V2.5
HTTP Server for i includes a servlet engine based on the 3.2.4 version of the Apache Software Foundation Jakarta Tomcat. Customers should select WebSphere Application Server when they need to deploy e-business solutions that are J2EE compliant, provide the most function and deliver the highest levels of reliability, scalability and security. See also Information Center About Tomcat.
The Webserver Search Engine allows you to perform full text searches on HTML and text files stored in an iSeries file system from any Web browser. The search engine supports SBCS and DBCS search data. It uses browser based administration and provides Net.Data macros to customize the search and search results. Documents in any language including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese can be searched. See iSeries Webserver Search Engine- Getting Started and iSeries WebCrawler - Getting Started for more information.
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Highly available HTTP servers provide function that monitors a URL that is part of your web site (for example, your home page) and will take recovery action if the web server is no longer serving your web content. For example, the monitor function will try to end and start your web server or may initiate a switch-over to move your HTTP server function to the backup node in the cluster. In addition, you may choose to write your CGI programs using highly available CGI APIs to save CGI state into the iSeries cluster. In the event of a failed node in the cluster, a stateful CGI can maintain its state, even after the application switches to a new node in the cluster.
A classic example that makes use of persistent CGI and highly available CGI is an application that includes a shopping cart. In this example, a user is on-line shopping and has placed two items in the shopping cart. The persistent CGI program saves the state into the cluster. That is, the data saved into the cluster indicates which two items are in the shopping cart. Later in the transaction, the primary iSeries node in the cluster fails and a fail-over is initiated. Now the backup iSeries node has switched to the primary and is doing web serving. The persistent CGI session continues to run, and the CGI program can retrieve its state on the new node from the data saved in the cluster. That is, the CGI program "remembers" that there are two items in the shopping cart, even though the web server and persistent CGI are now running on a different node. The node failure does not terminate the user's transaction and the shopping transaction continues without interruption.
For more information, see the High Availability and Clusters site and Redbook HTTP Server (powered by Apache): An Integrated Solution for IBM iSeries Servers (Chapter 14 - High availability).
Triggered Cache Manager (TCM) provides a mechanism to manage dynamically generated Web pages. TCM is a separate server, which can be used in conjunction with an HTTP Server to allow a Web designer to build dynamic pages and will only update the cache when the underlying data changes, thereby improving the performance of a Web site.
For more information, see Redbook HTTP Server (powered by Apache): An Integrated Solution for IBM iSeries Servers (Chapter 10, Section 10.5 - Triggered Cache Manager).
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