What Are The Types Of Servers?

The services provided by the servers are continually required and therefore most servers are never shut down . If a server goes down, that can cause a lot of problems for users.

What Is A Server ?

Server is a computer device that stores, distributes and supplies information . Servers work based on the “client-server” model. The client can be both a computer and an application that requires information from the server to function. Therefore, a server will offer the information requested by the client as long as the client is authorized.

Servers can be physical or virtual. In the case of the physical , it is a hardware , also known as a host, it is a machine integrated into a network of software- based nodes . On the other hand, virtual servers ( Virtual Private Server ) are softwares that provide services to other programs (clients)

What Are The Different Types Of Servers?

There are different servers. The most used and known servers are the following:

Database Server

Database server  stores databases, and provides management and consultation services for connecting clients. Almost all servers carry out this function, because every application usually has a database, but there are those dedicated exclusively to this service, such as the servers of the central databases of a bank.

DNS Server

DNS(Domain Name System) server is responsible for translating the IP address of a physical Internet server, such as 134.55.33.201 into a domain name, easily identifiable by humans.

Remote Access Server (RAS)

RAS acts as a communication bridge between networks, and users. They are usually computers that are located on the border of different networks, having communication cards and authentication mechanisms to allow passage between them. 

Print Server

In environments where many print jobs are performed, such as a large office, there is usually such a server, which is responsible for processing the print jobs and sending them to the corresponding printers.

Application Server

It runs applications and offers their services to connecting clients. They can be of a very varied nature, practically every service in the cloud or Internet runs on them. The execution of the applications usually triggers the connection to other types of servers such as databases.

Telephony Server

Telephony Server manages IP telephony or voice calls , offers switchboard functions such as call waiting, and transfers or routes calls to other servers. Today, practically all telephone exchanges are virtual, managed by telephony servers.

File Server

It serves as a repository or storage of computer files. An example can be the servers that Google Drive or Dropbox uses to store our documents, photos, videos .

Mail Server

Mail server responsible for managing email: sending, receiving, and storing messages. Every Internet domain usually has one, which is responsible for managing your email accounts.

Firewall 

It offers protection and security services to a network such as: anti-intrusion systems, antimalware, antivirus, firewalls etc.

Web Server

It stores web pages and distributes them on the Internet or to connecting clients. They use protocols such as HTTP or HTTP2 to serve documents in HTML, PHP, ASP. The most popular are: Lighttpd, NGINX, Microsoft IIS, Apache.