What is Application Server for ASP.NET?

.net asp.net windows application-server
Shashank picture Shashank · Oct 14, 2011 · Viewed 26.5k times · Source

I've worked on the .Net platform for last two years and now I'm moving on to .NET Web development.

I am confused about the Application server. What is it ? What are Roles? How is it different from the Web server?

In Windows is there any Application Server program like Tomcat with Apache Server? I read Wikipedia and MSDN, there is no any clear documentation regarding Application Server. So please advise me where I can clear my doubts. Is there any good link?

Answer

VinayC picture VinayC · Oct 14, 2011

The term application server is a bit vague - going by Wikipedia

An application server is a software framework that provides an environment in which applications can run, no matter what the applications are or what they do.1 It is dedicated to the efficient execution of procedures (programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction of applications.

It also explain the term for web applications saying

Later, the term took on the meaning of Web applications, but has since evolved further into that of a comprehensive service layer. An application server acts as a set of components accessible to the software developer through an API defined by the platform itself. For Web applications, these components are usually performed in the same machine where the Web server is running, and their main job is to support the construction of dynamic pages. However, present-day application servers target much more than just Web page generation: they implement services like clustering, fail-over, and load-balancing, so developers can focus on implementing the business logic.[3]

Going by these definitions and comparing with app servers from java world, .NET Framework along with infrastructure support from window server (e.g. IIS/Web Server) will be an application server.

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