What Is a Server? The Computer Behind Every Website
Every website lives on a computer somewhere
Every website lives on a computer somewhere
Every time you visit a website, your browser sends a request to a server. The server processes it and sends back a response. Click "Send Request" to see this in action.
A server runs multiple services. Click each service to see what it does.
Instead of buying a physical server, you can create a virtual one in seconds. Multiple virtual servers share one physical machine, each thinking it has the hardware to itself.
Servers come in different sizes, just like computers. More CPU, RAM, and storage = more capacity to handle traffic.
More cores = handle more simultaneous requests. A small blog needs 1 core. A busy API might need 8+. Each core processes requests independently.
RAM holds data currently being worked on. More RAM = cache more data = fewer slow disk reads. 512MB for tiny sites, 16GB+ for databases.
Where files, databases, and the OS live permanently. SSDs are 100x faster than old hard drives. 20GB minimum, terabytes for large apps.
How much data the server can send per month. A page view = ~2MB. 1TB bandwidth = ~500,000 page views per month.
The original web server, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, was a NeXT computer at CERN with a sticky note on it that read: "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!" The entire World Wide Web ran on one machine.
You've learned what a server is, how requests and responses work, and why virtual servers let anyone run infrastructure without buying hardware. Time to create your own.
A server is a computer that listens for requests and sends back responses. It runs 24/7, connected to the internet, waiting for someone to ask for a web page, image, or data.
Your browser sends a request: "Give me this page." The server processes it and sends back a response: the HTML, CSS, JS, and images that make up the page.
A physical server can run multiple virtual servers. Each one acts like its own computer with its own OS, files, and IP address, but they share the same physical hardware.
A web server (Apache/Nginx) serves web pages. A database server stores data. An application server runs code. Real infrastructure combines multiple services.
Put your new knowledge into practice!