iTP Secure WebServer System Administrators Guide (Version 7.5+)

1 Introduction to the iTP Secure WebServer
The iTP Secure WebServer provides a full range of services for running an online commercial or
informational enterprise on the Web. In addition to basic Web-related services, the iTP Secure
WebServer provides other important services including access control, enhanced logging,
customized error messaging, and automatic directory indexing.
NOTE: All references to the iTP Secure WebServer in this manual indicate 7.2 and later versions.
Topics discussed in this section include:
• “Features and Standards Supported by iTP Secure WebServer” (page 27)
• “iTP Secure WebServer Architecture” (page 29)
• “iTP Secure WebServer Encryption” (page 32)
The iTP Secure WebServer key features include:
• High performance
The iTP Secure WebServer's high-performance, multithreaded architecture provides low-latency
response to multiple clients simultaneously. Persistent connections can provide significant
performance gains in comparison with a separate connection for each request.
• Caching at several levels
To improve performance, the iTP Secure WebServer caches files it accesses. Disk file access
is one of the most common and expensive operations in a Web server. Therefore keeping
these files in memory can save processor utilization, and improve overall performance. In
addition to file opens that are already cached, the file information, as well as the actual file
content, can also be cached.
• Encryption and authentication flexibility
The iTP Secure WebServer supports the use of HTTP, TLS, and SSL. Secure HTTP supports the
simultaneous use of both the SSL/TLS and HTTP protocols. These options give you maximum
flexibility in protecting the privacy and integrity of your server's Einteractions with clients. The
iTP Secure WebServer implements both encryption and digital signatures.
• Flexible access control
You can control access to the iTP Secure WebServer on the basis of such factors as host name,
time of day, user name, browser type and version, and authentication method.
• High availability
The iTP Secure WebServer uses HP NonStop TS/MP to ensure high availability. NonStop
TS/MP enables you to run, as a server class, several instances of the same process. You can
configure NonStop TS/MP to create new processes as workload increases and to restart any
process that fails.
• Extensibility
You can enrich your WebServer environment by creating applications that use CGI, Java
Servlets, and JavaServer Pages. The iTP Secure WebServer supports both conventional CGI
applications andpersistent applications by using the parallel processing benefits of NonStop
TS/MP. You can write applications in any of several popular programming languages,
including Java. With the companion product iTP Active Transaction Pages (ATP), you can also
use server-side JavaScript to developWeb-based interfaces for NonStop TS/MP (Pathway),
NonStop SQL/MP, NonStop TUXEDO, and TCP/IP sockets applications.
26 Introduction to the iTP Secure WebServer