Web Servers
In Commerce Server, a Web server is a computer with Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 installed. To use a Web server with Commerce Server 2002, you must install Commerce Server on the same computer as IIS.
In Commerce Server, a Web server is associated with one or more applications; different applications can share the same Web server. The Web server contains the ASP files and subfolders for the application. One application can have several Web servers that, taken together, form a Web farm.
The following figure shows the objects on the IIS and Commerce Server Manager console trees, and the relationships among these objects.
.gif "A figure that shows the objects on the IIS and Commerce Server Manager consoles.")
To add ASP files to a Web server, you use Commerce Server Site Packager to unpack the Web server. The Commerce Web server object is added to the application when unpacking is complete. In Commerce Server Manager, a Web server object is exposed under the associated application.
The Web server object contains properties needed by the Data Warehouse to import log files.
The following table lists the properties you can view or change from the Web server node in Commerce Server Manager. For instructions, see Configuring a Web Server.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Server name | The name of the computer on which the Web server is installed. Change the name only if you have renamed your server. |
| Identities | This box displays the Internet Protocol (IP) address for the Web server, the TCP port, and the host header name. These values are initially read from IIS. |
| SSL Identities | This box displays the IP address and SSL port for the Web server. These values are initially read from IIS. |
| New Log Time Period | Specify how long the IIS Web site writes to a log file before it creates a new file. This value is initially read from IIS. |
| Log file mask | If desired, specify a custom log file rotation, indicating how long the IIS Web site writes to a log file before it creates a new file. For more information, including examples of what to enter in this box, see Specifying a Web Server Log File Mask. |
| Log file directory | The log file path to which the IIS Web site writes events, for example, C:\Winnt\System32\LogFiles\Log1. This value is initially read from IIS. However, you might want to specify a different directory if you copy the Web log files from the Web server to a central location before you run the import Data Transformation Services (DTS) tasks. |
| Log file code page | This box displays the code pages used by the entire file.
IIS 5.0 supports System code page. Future releases of IIS will support UTF-8. |
| URL encoding code page | This box displays the code pages used for all URLs.
IIS 5.0 supports System code page. Future releases of IIS will support UTF-8. |
When a Web server is added, these properties are automatically populated from IIS 5.0 to the Commerce Server Administration database.
It is possible that different applications might share a Web server. Each application has a unique URL, and unique URLs can be served by a single IIS Web site. For example, www.microsoft.com and www.microsoft.com/commerceserver could be served by the same IIS Web site.
If you are running a Web farm, you need to replicate your Web servers. It is recommended that you use Microsoft Application Center 2000 or another product to perform content replication.
Non-Commerce Web Servers
In addition to supporting Web servers that run IIS, Commerce Server also supports Web servers that do not run IIS and that do not include Commerce Server components. By supporting non-Commerce Web servers, Commerce Server enables you to make the Web server log files of those servers available to the Data Warehouse for import.
Commerce Server provides the Data Warehouse Configurator, a wizard that makes it easy for you to configure a non-Commerce application and Web server to work with the Commerce Server Data Warehouse. For more information, see Adding a Non-Commerce Application to a Site and Adding a Non-Commerce Web Server to an Application.
See Also
Installing on a Four-Computer Clustered Configuration
Installing on a Three-Computer Non-Clustered Configuration
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