Web Servers
by Vene T. Yates
By going to the free service offered by Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com), we can determine the operating systems (OS) and web server software (WSS) that companies use to host their site.
Below shows the five most used web servers as of September 2001:
Netscape is included in iPlanet. Addtional reading regarding "How many Active Sites are there?" (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/index-200007.html#active) is also recommended.
While Apache is listed as the most used, in reading the current Netcraft Web Server Survey article (http://www.netcraft.com/Survey) a discussion of an important component of the method used to report these statisitcs is illuminated. Under the heading, "Counting computers running the Web", it is revealed that hostnames rather than physical computers is used in determining the figures. A single computer can run several thousand websites on one computer so this will somewhat skew the true market share of actual hardware installed and license sales.
When counting by computer, Microsoft operating systems run almost 50% of the computers on public Internet web sites while Linux places second with close to 30% of the market share. This artile makes the point that "Although Apache runs more sites than Windows, Apache is heavily deployed at hosting companies and ISPs who strive to run as many sites as possible on a single computer to save costs. Windows is most popular with end-user and self hosted sites, where the host to computer ratio is smaller."
Below are five domains and the WWW server they use at their main URL.
|
Sample
of Domains and Web Servers Used
|
||
| Domain - Business | Operating System / Server | Netblock Owner |
|
webstrikesolutions |
Linux/ Apache1.3.14(RedHat) |
rackspace.com |
| readyhosting.com/webhost | Windows 2000/ MIIS/5.0 | readyhosting |
| hummer.com / oldsmobile | Windows2000/ MIIS/5.0 | Verio, Inc |
| synergysoup.com/webdesign |
Linux / Apache1.3.19(unix)
|
OLM.LLC |
| Corecomm.net - ISP | Solaris / Apache 1.3.0 | Megsinet |
Characteristics of Top Web Servers
Check out Serving Up Web Server Basics (http://webcompare.internet.com/webbasics/index.html) for a comprehensive explaination of how a web server works.
Web Server Picked: Windows 2000
Percentage of the Market: Depends on stats used. Number of Machines yields results close to 50% for Microsoft.
Cost of Program: $4000.00
Hardware Configuation and Operating System recommended to run Web Server Program:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/sysreqs/default.asp
Minimum Requirements:
Computer/Processor
133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU
Memory 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum [128 MB minimum supported;
4 gigabytes (GB) maximum] Hard Disk 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB
free space. (Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing
over a network.)
CPU Support Windows 2000 Server supports up to four CPUs on one machine
Major Features / Benefits of Web Server Program and advantage(5):
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/whyupgrade/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/server/evaluation/features/
Even with a Windows 2000 domain in place, you can continue to use Windows NT 4.0-, Novell NetWare- , or UNIX-based servers as needed by your organization, because the Windows 2000 Family is designed to interoperate with the systems you already have.