TEXT BOOK:“Client/Server Survival Guide”

Authors: Robert Orfali, Dan Harkey & Jeri Edwards,

Wiley INDIA Publication, 3rd Edition,2011.
Prepared by : B.Loganathan
 UNIT I: Client/Server computing–What is
Client/Server–File servers, Database servers,
Transaction servers, Groupware servers,
Object application servers, Web application
servers– FAT Servers or FAT Clients – 2-Tier
versus 3-Tier - Client/Server–Client/Server
building blocks.
 TEXT BOOK:“Client/Server Survival Guide”
 Authors: Robert Orfali, Dan Harkey & Jeri Edwards,
 Publication : Wiley INDIA, Edition : 3rd, 201
 Client and Servers are separate logical entities that
work together over a network to accomplish a task.
 All Client/Server systems have the following
distinguishing characteristics:
 Service : The server process is a provider of
services. The client is a consumer of services.
Client/Server provides a clean separation of
function based on the idea of service.
 Shared Resources : A server can service many
clients at the same time and regulate their access
to shared resources.
 Asymmetrical Protocols: Client always initiate the
dialog by requesting a service. Servers are passively
awaiting requests from the clients. So the client becomes
a server.
 Transparency of location : The server is a process that
can reside on the same machine as the client or on a
different machine across the network. Client/server
software usually masks the location of the server from the
clients by redirecting the service calls when needed.
 Mix-and-match : The client/server software is
independent of hardware or operating system platforms.
So we able to mix-and match client and server platforms.
 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.
 Encapsulation of services : The server is a specialist. A
message tells a server what service is requested. Servers
can be upgraded without affecting the client as long as the
published message interface is not changed.
 Scalability : Client/server systems can be scaled
horizontally or vertically. Horizontal scaling means adding
or removing client with only a slight performance impact.
Vertical scaling mean either migrating to larger and faster
server machine or distributing the processing load across
multiple servers.
 Integrity : The server code and server data is centrally
managed which results in cheaper maintenance and the
guarding of shared data integrity.

File Server
 The client passes requests for the file records over a
network to the file server. This is a very primitive form of
data service that necessitates many message exchanges
over the network to find the requested data.

 File servers are useful for sharing files across a network.

They are necessary for creating shared documents, images,
engineering drawings and other large data objects.
 Database Servers

 The client passes SQL requests as messages to

the database server. The results of each SQL
command are returned over the network.
 The server uses its own processing power to find
the requested data instead of passing all the
records back to a client (as in file server).
 Database server provide the foundation for
decision-support systems that require ad hoc
queries and flexible reports.
 They also play a key role in data warehousing.
 In Transaction Server, the client invokes remote
procedures/services that reside on the server with a
SQL data base engine.
 These remote procedures on the server execute a
group of SQL statements. The network exchange
consist of a single request/reply message for each
SQL statement. These grouped SQL statements are
called transactions.
 The client component usually include a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) and server component usually consists
of SQL transactions against database. These
applications are called OnLine Transaction Processing
(OLTP).
 Groupware address the management of semi-
structured information such as text, image, mail,
bulletin boards and flow of work. Examples are
Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and other
applications including document management,
multi party applications and work flow.
 Applications are created by using scripting
language farm-based interfaces provided by the
vendor. The communication middleware between
the client and server is vendor-specific.
 In object server, the client/server applications are
written as a set of communicating objects. Client
objects communicate with server objects using an
Object Request Broker(ORB).
 The ORB locate an instance of that object server
class, invokes the requested method and return
the results to the client object.
 The server object must provide support for
concurrency and sharing.
 Examples of commercial ORB’s are Iona’s Orbix,
Inprise’s VisiBroker, ICL’s DAIS, JavaSoft’s Java
IDL, IBM’s SOM.
 The World Wide Web(WWW) is the first
intergalactic client/server application. It consists of
thin, portable, universal client that talk to super fat
servers.
 Web application servers are a new class of
internet software. They are standard HTTP
servers with server-side component frameworks.
Functionally, they are very similar to object
servers.
 Examples are Microsoft’s MTS Web Server,
CORBA/Java’s Enterprise JavaBeans, Netscape/
Kiva’s Application Server, IBM’s Websphere.
 Client/server application can be differentiated by
how the distributed application is split between the
client and the server.
 The fat client model does more functions on the
Client. The fat server model places more function
on the server.
 Database and File servers are examples of fat
client.
 Groupware, Transaction and Web servers are
examples of fat servers.
 Fat client are more traditional form of client/server.
The bulk of application runs on the client side. In
both file and database server models, the client
know how the data are organized and stored on
the server side.
 Fat servers are easier to manage and deploy on
the network because most of the applications runs
on the server side. Fat server are used to
minimize network interchanges by creating more
abstract level of service.
 The client in the server model provides the GUI
and interact with the server through remote
procedure calls.
 High-brow client/server pundits prefer to use the
terms 2-tier, 3-tier and N-tier client/sever
architectures instead of fat clients and fat servers.
 In 2-tier client server system, the application logic
is buried either inside the user interface on the
client or within the database on the server.
 Examples of 2-tier client server systems are file
servers and database servers.
 In 3-tier client server systems, the application logic
lives in the middle-tier and it is separated from the
data and user interface.
 Examples of 3-tier client server systems are TP
Monitor, Object Transaction Monitors and Web
server.
 2-tier is great for creating applications quickly
using visual builder tools. Example are small scale
groupware, web publishing applications.
 3-tier is a new growth area for client/server
computing because it meets the requirement of
large scale-internet and intranet applications.
 3-tier client/server systems are more scalable,
robust, flexible and integrate data from multiple
sources.
 3-tier substitutes a few server calls for many SQL
queries and updates, so it perform much better
than 2-tier.
 The middle-tier is implemented as a collection of
components that are used in a variety of client
initiated business transactions(not monolithic).

 Clients frequently combine several middle-tier

components within the single business
transaction. A component can call other
components to help it implement a request.

 Component based application offer significant

advantages over monolithic applications.
 Advantages are:

 i)We can develop big applications in small steps.

 ii)Applications can reuse components.
 iii)Client can access and functions easily and
safely.
 iv)Custom applications can incorporate off-the-
shelf components.
 v)Component environment do not get older and
they only get better.
 Three Basic Building Block of Client/Server :
 This model is really is a game of putting together
things with building blocks: a client, a server and
the slash(/) that ties the client to the server.
 Building blocks are used in four situations:
 i)Client/server for tiny shops and nomadic
tribes : It is a building block implementation that
run the client, middleware software and most of
the business services on the same machine. It is
used for one-person shops, home offices and
mobile users.
 ii) Client/Server for small shops and
departments : It is classic Ethernet client/single-
server building-block implementation. It is used in
small shops, departments and branch offices.
 iii) Client/server for intergalactic enterprises : It
is the multi-server building-block implementation
of client/server. The servers present a single-
system image to the client. This is used to meet
the initial needs of the intergalactic client/server
computing.
 iv) Client/server for post-scarcity world : It
transform every machine in the world into both a
client and a server. Personal agents on every
machine will handle all the negotiations with the
peer agents anywhere in the universe.
 Client/server is easy to run the client and server
portion of an application on the same machine.
 For example a client server application for a
dentist’s office can be sold in a single-user-
package.
 The business-critical client/server application run
on one machine and does some occasional
communications with outside servers to exchange
data, refresh a database, send or receive mail.
 This client/server architecture is particularly well
suited for the LAN based single establishments. It
consists of multiple clients talking to a local server.
 This model is used in small businesses. For
example, a multi user dentist office, departments
of large corporations and branch offices of a bank.
 The single-server nature of the model tends to
keep the middleware simple. This model work very
well in small businesses and departments that
depend on single-server or on very loosely-
coupled multi-server arrangements.
 The client/server enterprise model addresses the
needs of establishments with a mix of
heterogeneous servers. This is an area that is
getting a lot of industry attention as solutions
move from a few large computers to multiple-
servers that live on the internet, intranets and
corporate backbone networks.
 One of the great things about this client/server
model is that it is upwardly scalable. When more
processing power is needed for various
intergalactic functions, more servers can be added
or the existing server machine can be traded up
for the latest generation of super server machine.
 In this model, every machine is both a client
and a full function server. We call this plentiful
environment is the “post-scarcity world”.
 We imagine the typical post-scarcity machine
as a 2000 cellular notebook powered by a top-
of-the-line processor and loaded with 10 MB
RAM and 100 GB or more of disk space.
 Every machine is a full-functional server, it will
run at a minimum, a file server, database
server, workflow agent, object transaction
monitor and web server.
The Client/Server Software Infrastructure:
 i)The client building block : It runs the client side
of the application. It runs on an Operating System
(OS) that provides a Graphical User Interface
(GUI) or an Object Oriented User Interface (OOUI)
and that can access distributed services.
 The client also runs a component of the
Distributed System Management (DSM) elements.
This could be anything from a simple agent to the
entire front-end of the DSM application on a
managing station.
 ii)The server building block : It runs the server
side of the application. The server application
typically runs on top of shrink-wrapped server
software package.
 The five contending server platforms for creating
next generation of client/server applications are
SQL database servers, OLTP monitors,
Groupware servers, Object servers and Web
servers.
 The server side depends on the operating system
to interface with the middleware building block that
brings the request for service. The server also
runs a Distributed System Management (DSM)
component.
 iii)The middleware building block : It runs on
both the client and server sides of an application.
This building block consists of three categories :
Transport Stacks, Network Operating Systems
(NOS) and Service-Specific Middleware.
 Middleware is the nervous system of the
client/server infrastructure. Like the other two
building blocks, the middleware also has a
DSM software component.
 The Distributed System Management (DSM)
application runs on every node in a
client/server network. The managing work
station collect information from all its agent on
the network and display it graphically.
 The managing work station also instruct its
agent to perform actions on its behalf
(network within a network).