iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator's Guide (iTPWebSvr 5.1+)

Introduction to the iTP Secure WebServer
iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator’s Guide—522659-001
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iTP Secure WebServer Architecture
A browser or web client uses the OPTIONS request method to determine the options
and/or requirements associated with a resource, or the capabilities of a server,
without necessarily retrieving or acting on the resource.
A browser or web client uses the TRACE method to see the data that is being
received at the other end of the request chain. The data can then be used for testing
or diagnostic information.
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Persistent connections
Rather than establish a new TCP/IP connection for each URL (for instance a new
connection to retrieve an embedded graphic) the iTP Secure WebServer allows the
establishment of a persistent connection for a set of related requests; you can set a
timeout or specify the maximum number of requests per connection.
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Chunked-transfer encoding
When a browser or web client cannot anticipate the length of a request, it can
transmit the data in chunks to the iTP Secure WebServer. The iTP Secure
WebServer reassembles the request and processes it.
The iTP Secure WebServer supports chunked-transfer encoding.
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Content negotiation
When a page is available in multiple representations (for example, if the text is
available in multiple languages, or a file is available in different character sets or
compression formats), the iTP Secure WebServer can select among those
representations on the basis of information transmitted with each request or
specified in the iTP Secure WebServer configuration.
iTP Secure WebServer Architecture
Descriptions of the major components shown in Figure 1-1 follow the figure. For
information about other products you can use in the iTP Secure WebServer environment,
see Other Products for the iTP Secure WebServer Environment on page 1-9.
Figure 1-1 shows the architecture for a conventional TCP/IP environment.
If you use the new Parallel Library TCP/IP product, the architectural environment
changes slightly. Running with the Auto-Accept feature, an iTP WebServer no longer
needs the Distributor component.The httpd servers will assume the listening as well as
the distributing functions of the Distributor. The Distributor server class will be
completely removed from the PATHWAY environment. All the necessary process hops
will be removed, resulting in a far superior performance.