# Presentation: 331843

## MCS Web ServersDelivering Solutions

- Sandra Bittner
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Mathematics & Computer Science Division		July 2000

## A Web Experiment

- Aging NCSA web server
- Early Front Page Extensions to UNIX
- Personal & Professional Mixed
- Aging operating system
- Half-implemented tools
- Fairly impressive

## Part IIdentify/Design/Restructure

## Motivations

- Remove file-system dependencies
- Create expandable architecture
- Support multiple identities
- Increase Resource Manageability & Security
- Author/Group/Collaborator retains responsibility for information content

## Motivations

- Create coherent, dynamic information structure
- Project Professional Electronic Image/Presence
- Achieve a uniform URL namespace
- Address incompatible tools and/or web servers

## Goal

- “Harness web technologies to create a cohesive, informative, professional image that establishes our electronic presence, promotes our distinguished research efforts, provides a distribution channel for our publications and developed software, and shares our knowledge core with the greater electronic community.”

## Conceptual Web Structure Design

- Server Infrastructure
- New URL styles
- Professional Brochure
- Enhanced Security

## New Web Infrastructure

- ......
- the future

- ......
- intranet

## Server Design

- Top Level - traffic director
- Individual web servers
- Server-aliases
- www-fp
- www-unix
- Virtual hosts
- Decrease file-system dependencies

## An Eye on Growth & Changes

- Adding Servers
- Moving Servers
- server-aliases
- relative versus absolute references
- Containment of CGI, images
- Templates

## URL Organization

- Establish consistency
- http://www.mcs.anl.gov/division
- http://www.mcs.anl.gov/<Project-Name>
- http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~<user-name>
- Why?
- Top-level naming is shorter and more prestigious
- More organization is difficulty and a bit arbitrary

## Professional Image

- Page Design
- Levels
- division
- project
- user
- Templates

## Security

- Enhanced server manageability
- Model allows for move to “digital signatures” and/or certificates
- Containment of CGI scripts
- Writing limited to controlled areas
- Defined areas of responsibility
- Isolated/reduced services

## Achievements

- Professional Electronic Image
- Promote active research efforts
- Uniform URLs
- Dynamic information source
- Establish Publication & Software Distribution Channels
- Introduced a secure, flexible, manageable infrastructure

## Part IIGrowth/Change/Expansion

## The Next Step

- Add new domains/identities
- Complete virtual host implementation
- Increase statistics gathering
- Increase search capability
- Implement Intranet

## Adding Hosts & Identities

- New high level non-dependent domains
- individual logs
- individual data areas
- responsible groups
- separate IP-addresses and DNS
- New servers & Virtual Hosts

## Statistics

- Round 1:
- Developed software
- automatic log parsing
- Hit and traffic analysis
- email results
- Round 2:
- Evaluate multiple products
- Purchased commercial product
- Link analysis/hits/traffic analysis

## Search Capabilities

- Evaluated many, many products
- Inclusive and exclusive searches
- Multi-server
- Multi-domain
- Multiple platform
- Significant Cost

## Intranet

- Individual Server
- Individual data space
- Separate logs
- Home/Travel Access

## Interesting Conclusions

- Time start to finish = *2 years
- Grouplet - 4 individuals (*not primary duty)
- From 1 to 22
- 8 servers
- 14 virtual hosts
-  Operating systems
- Linux, Solaris, NT
- Web servers
- Apache, IIS

## Reached Goal

- “Harness web technologies to create a cohesive, informative, professional image that establishes our electronic presence, promotes our distinguished research efforts, provides a distribution channel for our publications and developed software, and shares our knowledge core with the greater electronic community.”

## 
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