Servers and SQL Servers: definitions and function
What is a server and what is its function?
Generally speaking, it might be described as a special computer which responds to a range of requests from client computers (or ‘clients’). These requests may include tasks such as allowing different users to communicate online, the sending of emails or the opening of web pages.
At a structural level, these devices (also known as servants) include specific hardware and are much larger, because they must allow extra space for the network cards and for mass storage.
Considering that when the client computers request a file on the server, they retrieve it from the hard disk via Internet, if the number of user computers is large, it becomes necessary to use several servers together.
In brief then, we might say that a server comes into play as soon as the need to share something located in one place with various colleagues arises. For this reason, servers are not only used by companies and large networks, but also by private individuals.
Servers use a number of relatively powerful processors contemporarily, with an average capacity of between 4 and 16 GB of RAM, they have hard disks which are connected to each other by RAID controllers and have an external connection powered by high speed network cards.
Servers do not require excessively powerful graphic or audio cards. In addition, there are some special operating systems such as Linux or Windows Server 2008 which are specifically designed for them and allow distribution of data to a huge number of users.
Among the main services they provide are the management of local or geographic networks and printing devices, the sharing of data between different computers, the sending of emails and access to the content of files on a web site.
As mentioned above, servers are used by both large businesses and private individuals. For this reason, there are some lighter versions (File Servers, Media Servers, Game Servers, Mail Servers, Web Servers and Data Servers) which are included in many devices and used in domestic environments.
We must also dedicate a few words to SQL Servers (Structured Query Language), which enable the management of databases containing specific project information. These are not really servers as such, but rather a language which sends requests to the database where the information is stored.
So in other words, a database server which uses SQL for CRUD operations, stores information. That type of database stores the information in tables, which enable users to access the data easily and quickly.
There are basically four types of query:
- Create: required to create new tables;
- Insert: required to insert data into the tables;
- Update: required to modify a specific line of data in the table;
- Delete: required to delete a line from the table.
All these web apps use databases. This is also true in the case of WordPress and Magento, which are undoubtedly the most widely used among webmasters during web site creation.
This concludes our brief guide to servers and their functions; they are indispensable instruments which guarantee the efficient execution of all the online services to which we are accustomed nowadays in our daily lives (services like Gmail, Facebook, Google Drive and many others, which always require a web server and a database).
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
