CST 426 CLIENT SERVER

ARCHITECTURE
INSTITUTION VISION & MISSION
DEPARTMENT VISION & MISSION
• file:///D:/Teaching/syllabus/COMPUTER%20SCIENCE%20AND%20ENGINEERING%20
S7%20&%20S8.pdf
 INTRODUCTION
• Client / Server Computing
• Client/Server computing is new technology that yields solutions to many data management
problems faced by modern organizations.
• The term Client/Server is used to describe a computing model for the development of
computerized systems.
• This model is based on distribution of functions between two types of independent and
autonomous processes: Server and Client.
• A Client is any process that requests specific services from the server process.
• A Server is a process that provides requested services for the Client.
• Client and Server processes can reside in same computer or in different computers linked by
a network.
• The network ties the server and client together, providing the medium through which the
clients and the server communicate.

Fig: Basic Client/Server Computing Model

• The key point to Client/Server power is where the request processing takes place. For example:
Client/Server Database.

• In case of Client/Server database system, the functionality is split between the server system
and multiple clients such that networking of computers allows some tasks to be executed on the
client system.

• Definition: A simple definition of client/server computing is that server software accepts

requests for data from client software and returns the results to the client. The client
manipulates the data and presents the results to the user or, acting as a server (or an agent),
sends the results to the client (server) that requested it.
 VARIOUS AVAILABLE SERVER
File Server
Print Server
Application Server
Mail Server
Fax Server
Directory Services Server
Web Server
Database Server
Transaction Servers
Groupware Servers
Object Application Servers
File Server:-
• All the files reside on the server machine.
• File Server provides clients access to records within files from the server machine.
• File Servers are useful for sharing files across a network among the different client process
requesting the services.
• The server process is somewhat primitive because of tends to demand many message
exchanges over the network to find the requested data.
• The examples of File servers are:
• UNIX: Network File Services (NFS) created by Sun Micro systems.
• Microsoft Windows “Map Drive” e.g., Rivier College’s “P-drive”.
• Samba: An open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to
SMB/CIFS clients (i.e., Microsoft Windows clients)
Print Server:-
• This machine manages user access to the shared output devices, such as printers.
• These are the earliest type of servers.
• Print services can run on a file server or on one or more separate print server machines.
Application Server:-
• This machine manages access to centralized application software; for example, a shared
database.
• When the user requests information from the database, the application server processes the
request and returns the result of the process to the user.
Mail Server:-
• This machine manages the flow of electronic mail, messaging, and communication with
mainframe systems on large-scale networks.
Fax Server:-
• Provides the facility to send and receive the Faxes through a single network connection.
• The Fax server can be a workstation with an installed FAX board and special software or a
specialized device dedicated and designed for Fax Services.
• This machine manages flow of fax information to and from the network.
• It is similar to the mail server
Directory Services Server:-
• It is found on large-scale systems with data that is distributed throughout multiple servers.
• This machine functions as an organization manager, keeping track of what is stored where,
enabling fast and reliable access to data in various locations.
Web Server:-
This machine stores and retrieves Internet (and intranet) data for the enterprise.
Some documents, data, etc., reside on web servers.
Web application provides access to documents and other data.
“Thin” clients typically use a web browser to request those documents. Such servers shares
documents across intranets, or across the Internet (or extranets). The most commonly used
protocol is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
The examples of web application servers are Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS),
Netscape’s iPlanet , IBM’s WebSphere, BEA’s WebLogic and Oracle Application Server.
Database Server:-
• Data resides on server, in the form of a SQL database.
• Database server provides access to data to clients, in response to SQL requests.
• It shares the data residing in a database across a network.
• Database Server has more efficient protocol than File Server.
• The Database Server receives SQL requests and processes them and returning only the
requested data; therefore the client doesn’t have to deal with irrelevant data.
• However, the client does have to implement SQL application code.
• The example of database server is: Oracle9i database server.
Transaction Servers:-
• The data and remote procedures reside on the server.
• The Server provides access to high level functions, and implements efficient transaction
processing.
• It shares data and high level functions across a network.
• Transaction servers are often used to implement Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) in high-
performance applications.
• A transaction server utilizes a more efficient protocol in comparison to a Database Server.
• The transaction Server receives high-level function request from the clients and it implements
that function. Often it needs to return less information to the client than a Database Server.
• Examples of the Transaction servers mainly categorized as
 TP-Light with Database Stored Procedures like Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server etc.
 TP-Heavy with TP Monitors like BEA Tuxedo, IBM CICS/TX Series.
Object Application Servers:-
• Communicating distributed objects reside on the server.
• The object server primarily provides access to those objects from the designated client objects.
• The object Application Servers are responsible for sharing distributed objects across the network.
• Object Application Servers use the protocols that are usually some kind of Object Request Broker
(ORB).
• Each distributed object can have one or more remote methods.
• ORB locates an instance of the object server class, invokes the requested method, and returns the
results to the client object.
• Object Application Server provides an ORB and application servers to implement this.
• For example:
 Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA): Iona’s Orbix, Borland’s Visibroker.
 Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), aka COM+.
 Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS).
Groupware Servers:-
• Groupware Server provides services, which put people in contact with other people, that is
because “groupware” is an ill-defined classification protocol differing from product to
product.
• For Example: Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft Exchange.
 CLIENT/SERVER: FAT OR THIN

• A Client or a Server is so named depending on the extent to which the processing is shared
between the client and server.

• A thin client is one that conducts a minimum of processing on the client side while a fat
client is one that carries a relatively larger proportion of processing load.

• The concept of Fat Clients or Fat Servers is given by one of the important criterion, that is,
how much of an application is placed at the client end vs. the server end.
 CLIENT/SERVER: STATELESS OR
STATEFUL
• A stateless server is a server that treats each request as an independent transaction that is
unrelated to any previous request.
• The biggest advantage of stateless is that it simplifies the server design because it does not
need to dynamically allocate storage to deal with conversations in progress or worry about
freeing it if a client dies in mid-transaction.
• There is also one disadvantage that it may be necessary to include more information in each
request and this extra information will need to be interpreted by the server each time.
• An example of a stateless server is a World Wide Web server
• A request to the server for a file can assume that the user has been authenticated and that the
current directory and file transfer mode have been set.
• The Gopher protocol and Gopher+ are both designed to be stateless
• Stateful Server:- Client data (state) information are maintained by server on status of
ongoing interaction with clients and the server remembers what client requested previously
and at last maintains the information as an incremental reply for each request.
• The advantages of stateful server is that requests are more efficiently handled and are of
smaller in size.
• Some disadvantages are their like state information becomes invalid when messages are
unreliable.
• Another disadvantage is that if clients crash (or reboot) frequently, state information may
exhaust server’s memory.
• The best example of stateful server is remote file server.
 STATELESS VS STATEFUL SERVERS

A stateful server remembers client data (state) from one request to the next.

 A stateless server keeps no state information. Using a stateless file server, the client must specify
complete file names in each request specify location for reading or writing and re-authenticate for each
request.

Using a stateful file server, the client can send less data with each request.

 A stateful server is simpler. On the other hand, a stateless server is more robust and lost connections
can’t leave a file in an invalid state rebooting the server does not lose state information rebooting the
client does not confuse a stateless server
 CLIENT/SERVER FUNCTIONS
• The main operations of the client system are listed below:
 Managing the user interface.

 Accepts and checks the syntax of user inputs.

 Processes application logic.

 Generates database request and transmits to server.

 Passes response back to server.

• The main operations of the server are listed below:
 Accepts and processes database requests from client.

 Checks authorization.

 Ensures that integrity constraints are not violated.

 Performs query/update processing and transmits responses to client.

 Maintains system catalogue.

 Provide concurrent database access.

 Provides recovery control.

 CLIENT/SERVER TOPOLOGIES
• A Client/Server topology refers to the physical layout of the Client/Server network in which
all the clients and servers are connected to each other. This includes all the workstations
(clients) and the servers.

• The possible Client/Server topological design and strategies used are as follows:
 (i) Single client, single server

 (ii) Multiple clients, single server

 (iii) Multiple clients, multiple servers

 SINGLE CLIENT, SINGLE SERVER

• In this topology, one client is directly connected to one server.

 MULTIPLE CLIENTS, SINGLE
SERVER
• In this topology, several clients are directly connected to only one server.
 MULTIPLE CLIENTS, MULTIPLE
SERVERS
• In this topology several clients are connected to several servers.
 CLASSIFICATION OF
CLIENT/SERVER SYSTEMS
Broadly, there are three types of Client/Server systems in existence.
(i) Two-tier
(ii) Three-tier
(iii) N-Tier
 SERVERS AND MAINFRAMES
 Mainframes

• From a hardware perspective, a mainframe is not greatly different from a personal computer.

• The CPU inside a mainframe was, however, much faster than a personal computer.

• In fact, what a mainframe most closely resembled was a LAN.

• A mainframe was ‘larger’ in terms of:

 The raw speed expressed in instructions per second, or cycles.

The amount of memory that could be addressed directly by a program.

• Mainframes are the monstrous computer system that deals mainly the business functions and technically

these giant machines will run MVS, IMS and VSAM operating systems.

• There is a common believe that a mainframe is ‘database’.

• There are many reasons behind this belief:

 Many servers are either file or database servers running sophisticated database such as Sybase, Oracle

and DB2.

 These servers connect to the mainframe primarily to access databases.

 Organizations use servers specifically to replace mainframe databases.

 Organizations keep applications on the mainframe usually for better database performance, integrity

and functionality