Microsoft Visual C++ .NET Professional Projects - Premier Press

THE .NET SERVER FAMILY Appendix B 941

Application Center 2000

You can use Application Center 2000 to deploy and manage high-availability Web applications built on Windows 2000. To deploy and manage Web applications, Application Center 2000 implements clustering. You can create Application Center 2000 groups that include elements of an application, such as Web sites and COM+ components, which can be managed through an Application Center cluster.

Application Center 2000 simplifies cluster management by allowing you to manage an entire cluster of servers as a single server. In addition, you can use Application Center 2000 to automate application deployment from one cluster to another. All the changes caused as a consequence of the deployment are automatically synchronized across all the members in a cluster. In other words, at all times, an Application Center cluster provides the same content to users irrespective of the cluster member catering to client requests.

An important aspect of Application Center clusters is their scalability, which allows you to add or remove members to or from the cluster as required. For instance, you might consider adding a server to the existing cluster if the workload on the cluster is heavy. Application Center clusters support the addition of an “off-the-shelf ” server with Application Center 2000 installed to an existing cluster. However, when the capacity requirement of Web applications decreases or a server stops functioning, you might need to remove a server from the cluster. The addition or removal of servers to and from an Application Center cluster does not disrupt the availability of the Web site. In other words, applications are available at all times irrespective of the removal of any server or a malfunctioning server.

Another important feature of Application Center 2000 is its monitoring capability. You can monitor the performance of an entire cluster or individual members of a cluster by using Application Center 2000. In addition, you can use Application Center 2000 to automate responses to specific events or conditions. For instance, you can redirect user requests for similar resources to an alternate cluster member when the processor usage of a cluster member exceeds the threshold limit.

Application Center 2000 supports the distribution of workload among members of a cluster. In addition, Application Center 2000 supports Network Load Balancing (NLB) to balance IP requests, and Component Load Balancing (CLB) to balance the activation of COM+ components across cluster members.

BizTalk Server 2000

The currently available plethora of formats allows you to create applications using any format based on the ease of use or the functionality required. This vast diversity leads to problems related to compatibility and interoperability across platforms. BizTalk Server 2000 provides a solution by allowing you to integrate applications created using different formats.

As a solution to integrating applications created using different formats, BizTalk Server 2000 provides a suite of tools and services. These tools and services allow you to create and deploy integrated business processes within an organization or across organizations. Some graphical tools such as BizTalk Orchestration Designer and BizTalk Messaging Manager allow you to integrate, manage, and automate dynamic business processes.

BizTalk Server 2000 handles the online document exchange across organizations with ease. Online document exchange across organizations is fraught with potential problems, such as the integrity and security of the document in transit. BizTalk Server 2000 ensures the integrity of all communication and data exchange between transacting parties. In addition, BizTalk Server 2000 ensures the security of such a communication and data transfer. To accomplish this, BizTalk Server 2000 implements secure and reliable connections irrespective of the operating system, programming language, or programming model by using technologies such as public key encryption and digital signatures.

The electronic exchange of documents is also marred with problems related to exchange across different platforms. To resolve this problem, BizTalk Server 2000 manages translation and encryption of data and data tracking services. For instance, you can use BizTalk Server 2000 tools, such as BizTalk Mapper, to transform documents into a commonly accepted format. All the documents are exchanged across dissimilar systems in the XML format. The routing and analysis of data and documents exchanged across electronic or organizational barriers is done using an open industry framework called BizTalk Framework 2.0. BizTalk Messaging Manager is another important tool in BizTalk Server 2000 that allows you to manage document exchange between applications and trading partners.

Certain other tools offered by BizTalk Server 2000, such as BizTalk Orchestration Designer, allow you to use XLANG, an XML-based language. The BizTalk Orchestration Designer tool is used to create drawings that depict the interactions and procedures during a process. These business process drawings can be

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compiled and run as XLANG schedules. An XLANG schedule describes the business processes that help bind a process to application services.

Commerce Server 2000

Organizations are almost always looking for a scalable platform that can be readily customized to create e-commerce Web sites without spending extra revenue and time. Commerce Server 2000 provides a cost-effective and less cumbersome way to create e-commerce sites.

To create e-commerce sites of your own quickly and easily, Commerce Server 2000 provides Solution Sites. Solution Sites are templates that can be built upon by adding new functionalities and enhancements per customer and organizational requirements. For instance, the infrastructure provided by Commerce Server 2000 is capable of product and service management, transaction processing, and user profiling. It is also possible to customize this infrastructure to meet your requirements.

Business managers can also use Commerce Server 2000 to manage Web sites in a real-time environment. Therefore, whenever the content on the Web site is updated to meet customer requirements, the changes take effect immediately. This offers business managers an opportunity to provide highly personalized and relevant content on their site at all times.

With Commerce Server 2000, business managers are also equipped with essential decision-support mechanisms, such as data warehousing and data mining. In addition, Commerce Server 2000 can be used to analyze business scenarios and update sites in real time based on the results of the analysis by virtue of the server’s analytical capabilities. It is possible for business managers to analyze site usage by using Commerce Server 2000. The content or functionality of the site can then be enhanced based on the results to increase the number of users visiting the site.

Commerce Server 2000 supports integration with other .NET Enterprise Servers to provide enhanced functionalities. Some .NET Enterprise Servers that you can integrate with Commerce Server 2000 are BizTalk Server 2000 and Host Integration Server 2000. This feature of integration with other .NET Enterprise Servers allows you to create enhanced systems that can utilize e-commerce sites built using Commerce Server 2000. You can ensure data and document exchange across dissimilar systems by integrating Commerce Server 2000 with BizTalk Server 2000. You can also integrate COM+ services to create scalable and distributed applications.

Content Management Server 2001

The creation as well as the maintenance of content-driven Web sites is an arduous and time-consuming task. Microsoft developed Content Management Server 2001 to make it easier for content providers to effectively manage Web content. Content Management Server 2001 allows you to readily develop, publish, and maintain highly dynamic content-driven Web sites for the Internet and intranets.

Content Management Server 2001 offers built-in templates called presentation templates that you can use to create Web sites. You can use these templates to design the Web site and the layout of the site. In addition, these templates allow you to redesign the Web site in real time. You can maintain consistency in the Web site design and exercise control over the content on the Web site by using Template Galleries and Resource Galleries. The Template Galleries and Resource Galleries features of Content Management Server 2001 manage the templates and resources of a Web site, respectively.

You can publish content to multiple locations or Web sites and dynamically publish content in real time by using Content Management Server 2001. This is because the content on the Web site is not bound to the presentation templates responsible for the design and layout of the Web site. Content Management Server 2001 ensures dynamic and real-time updating of Web content by implementing caching of objects in RAM and on the hard disk. This feature of Content Management Server 2001 considerably reduces the time required to download content.

In addition, you can archive all the updated documents automatically by using Content Management Server 2001. It is also possible to track the various versions of a particular document. Content Management Server 2001 supports multiple levels of review and approval of a document before the document is actually published on a Web site. You can also schedule the publication and archival of content by using scheduling tools offered by Content Management Server 2001.

You can also provide personalized content based on the profile or the browsing device by using Content Management Server 2001. You can customize the content on the Web site based on the profiles of audiences, devices used, and the purpose for viewing content.

Like other .NET Enterprise Servers, Content Management Server 2001 supports scalability. You can also integrate Content Management Server 2001 with Windows 2000 Advanced Server, SQL Server 2000, Commerce Server 2000, and

THE .NET SERVER FAMILY Appendix B 945

FrontPage 2000. It is also possible to balance workload by creating clusters of servers running Content Management Server 2001.

Exchange 2000

To retain its position in the online market, an organization needs to be in constant touch with its customers as well as the happenings in the world around. Therefore, communication plays a vital role in a business scenario. With the Internet making a foray into the arena of business transactions, it becomes of prime importance to supply the right information to the right person at the right time. Therefore, a reliable and scalable messaging service forms an important requirement for e-commerce transactions.

Exchange 2000 provides an invaluable messaging infrastructure that provides the necessary solutions to the communication-related problems of an enterprise. Exchange 2000 supports a range of collaborative activities. Some of these activities include discussion groups and electronic scheduling. Exchange 2000 also supports features such as instant messaging and video conferencing to allow access to information across geographic and organizational barriers.

You can use Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server to enable audio and video conferencing. You can also set up online conferences by using standard meeting requirement forms in Microsoft Outlook by using Exchange 2000. The Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server allows you to set up conferences with any T.120 client by using MS NetMeeting on any platform, including UNIX and Macintosh. The Web client that ships with Exchange 2000 Conferencing Server includes NetMeeting 3.01, which is a Web-based T.120 control. In addition, you can use the Conference Management Service of Exchange 2000 to control access to conferences. Exchange 2000 also provides services such as contact and task management.

Exchange 2000 gives you the benefit of a single platform offering multiple capabilities. You can use Exchange 2000 for e-mail, voice mail, fax, and page messages. You can also use the chat services based on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) provided by Exchange 2000. IRC is a protocol that enables text-based chat. Exchange 2000 also allows users to access e-mail and contacts remotely from the Internet.

Exchange 2000 also facilitates the sharing of data in the form of files and applications. In addition, Exchange 2000 allows you to conduct discussions through data conferencing. Keeping in mind the online nature of today’s business, remote access to information and data has become a part of life. It is possible for users to

access the data stored in Exchange 2000 from a Web browser. To ensure interoperability, Exchange 2000 supports Internet standards, such as XML and HTTP.

You can also use Exchange 2000 to create Web Forms. In addition, the Outlook Web Access component of Exchange 2000 supports enhanced scalability and functionality over its earlier version. You can send embedded messages and meeting requests by using Outlook Web Access. The Outlook Web Access component also allows you to add audio and video clips to a message.

To ensure high availability and scalability, Exchange 2000 supports clustering. You can use the Enterprise Edition of Exchange 2000 to work with multiple storage groups and databases. An important feature of Exchange 2000 is the enhanced routing algorithms that it uses to ensure that a message reaches the intended destination despite malfunctioning mail servers or network links. It is also possible to secure communications by setting permissions for items or documents. You can therefore achieve new levels of security for the workflow applications.

Host Integration Server 2000

Host Integration Server 2000 has been primarily designed to support interoperability with non-Windows systems. This allows you to use the existing AS/400 and mainframe systems’ data or applications without modifying them in any way. To achieve this kind of interoperability, Host Integration Server 2000 allows you to create applications that integrate host systems to the Internet or to an intranet.

Host Integration Server 2000 supports threefold interoperability. You can use Host Integration Server 2000 to interact with host systems through data integration. In addition, the server supports network integration and application integration.

You can access host resources by using MS ActiveX-enabled, Web-deployable clients provided by Host Integration Server 2000. Host Integration Server 2000 supports a maximum of 30,000 simultaneous client connections per server. Additionally, Host Integration Server 2000 supports a wide range of mainframe systems and AS-class host systems. You can also access SQL Server, DB2, and flat-file data on mainframes, AS/400, UNIX, Windows 2000, and Windows NT Server systems. You can also integrate Microsoft Transaction Server and COM+ with IBM’s CICS or IMS transaction environments to achieve enhanced interoperability.

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Host Integration Server 2000 achieves network integration by supporting a multitude of protocols and network service types. Host Integration Server 2000 also allows you to use Windows 2000 features such as Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ), COM+, and Application Center 2000 services.

With Host Integration Server 2000, logging on to a host system is made a simple task. A user logging on to Windows NT is automatically authenticated for Windows NT and the host system logon simultaneously. Host Integration Server 2000 maps the user ID and the password from Windows NT Server Directory Service to the host system’s user ID and password to ensure authentication in the host system.

Host Integration Server 2000 also offers a comprehensive security system that incorporates the Windows 2000 Active Directory and Windows NT 4.0 domain security model as well as the host-based security. This security system ensures that all client-to-server and network-to-network virtual private network (VPN) connections are secure and tunneled by using Host Integration Server 2000. The server also allows you to integrate the best that Internet, intranet, and client/server technologies have to offer.

Akin to other .NET Enterprise Servers, Host Integration Server 2000 supports clustering and workload balancing. For instance, you can integrate Host Integration Server 2000 with BizTalk and Commerce Server. You can integrate host systems with .NET-based applications.

Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000

Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 is the latest product that Microsoft has to offer to ensure fast and secure connections to the Internet. ISA Server 2000 uses a Web cache to facilitate fast Internet access. In addition, to implement a secure connection to the Internet, ISA Server 2000 implements a firewall. In other words, this server offers a tool for organizations to enhance Internet access and implement organizational security policies.

In order to facilitate fast Internet access, ISA Server 2000 maintains a Web cache of all the frequently accessed Web objects, such as HTML pages, images, and files. This helps to improve the network performance by reducing network traffic, because objects are fetched from the ISA Server 2000 cache and not from the Internet. You can, therefore, use ISA Server 2000 to manage the Internet network traffic and reduce the time taken to access the Web. In addition, to ensure a fast

Web access, ISA Server 2000 implements RAM caching and stores the cache contents in a location on the hard disk.

ISA Server 2000 supports scalability of the Web cache by adding additional ISA servers. It is also possible to increase the capacity of an ISA Server Web cache by adding multiple processors, implementing symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), increasing disk space, or increasing RAM.

ISA Server 2000 implements multiple caching technologies:

Forward caching

Distributed caching

Hierarchical caching

Scheduled caching

Reverse caching

I will now discuss these caching technologies.

Forward Caching

When ISA Server 2000 implements forward caching, clients from within the network of an organization can access the servers on the Internet. All the Web content that is frequently accessed is cached on the ISA server.

Distributed Caching

In distributed caching, ISA Server 2000 uses Cache Array Routing Protocol (CARP) to create a single logical cache by using ISA Server computers. Distributed caching is implemented when multiple ISA Server computers are used.

Hierarchical Caching

ISA Server 2000 implements hierarchical caching to ensure that users can access caches that are located in geographic proximity. This caching technique is implemented when a hierarchy of interconnected ISA Server computers exists. To implement hierarchical caching, you can place ISA Server Web caches in a hierarchy depending on geographical location, and link client nodes to the nearest leaf node of the hierarchy. In this caching technique, when a client requests a resource, the request goes to the nearest (leaf ) node, and then travels up the hierarchy till the requested object is found.

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Scheduled Caching

Scheduled caching allows you to update the ISA Server Web cache by scheduling the automatic update of the cache content.

Reverse Caching

To implement reverse caching, an ISA server is placed as a layer over an organization’s Web server. In reverse caching, all incoming requests from clients are catered to from the ISA cache. However, if the requested object is not available in the ISA cache, the request is forwarded to the underlying Web server. In this way, the communication between clients on the Internet and the publishing Web servers located within an organization is secured.

ISA Server 2000 implements a dedicated firewall to prevent unauthorized access to the content in the Web cache. It is possible to customize the firewall to meet the requirements of an organization. ISA Server 2000 also implements end-to- end security by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) bridging.

You can also create policies or rules that restrict the entry of malicious content into a corporate network by using ISA Server 2000. It is also possible to use ISA Server 2000 to create rules that govern the kind of traffic permitted for a particular component of a network, such as a user, a group, or an application. In addition, you can create content and site rules that govern the content type and list of sites that can be accessed. ISA Server prevents unauthorized access by examining all the incoming data. In addition, the server blocks all the data packets that violate security rules. You can also specify the protocols that can be used for incoming and outgoing communication by creating protocol rules.

ISA Server performs the role of a protective layer between the Internet and the internal servers. The traffic meant for the internal server is intercepted by ISA Server. This ensures that all the client requests meant for the server are first received and filtered by the ISA Server. You can use ISA Server to maintain network security while publishing internal servers to the Internet. In addition, you can specify rules governing the requests that should be sent to the server. To secure the network, ISA Server prevents external threats, infiltration, and unauthorized access. ISA Server 2000 allows you to monitor the usage and access of resources on the network. The server also inspects the traffic at the packet, circuit, and application levels.