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 2000, 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 may have several Web servers that, taken together, form a Web farm.
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. From the Web server node in Commerce Server Manager, you can view or change the following properties.
| Property | Description |
| Server name | The name of the computer on which IIS is installed. |
| IP Address | The Internet Protocol (IP) address for the IIS Web site of the application. |
| Log file path | The path to which the IIS Web site of the application is to write events, for example, C:\Winnt\System32\Log1. |
| Log file period | The length of time the IIS Web site of the application will retain the log file before it overwrites the data. |
When a Web server is added, these properties are automatically populated from IIS 5.0 to the Commerce Server Administration database.
Commerce Server supports Web servers that are not running IIS and do not include Commerce Server components. This enables you to make the Web server log files available to the Data Warehouse for import. For more information, see Adding a Non-Commerce Application and Web Server.
It is possible that different applications might share a Web server. Each application has a unique URL; 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 Application Center Server 2000 or another product to perform content replication.
See Also
Example A: Installing on a Four-Computer Clustered Configuration
Example B: Installing on a Three-Computer Non-Clustered Configuration