Re: Writing my own FastCGI Server

Jason P Sage wrote:

You sound a
bit abrasive – probably because
you are so close to your own main frame issues that talking generally
like I
was sounds crazy.

Yes, depends
on many factors – and I
did not mean to imply using a mainframe as a solution for your specific
issues.

I have used
old VMS, Dec ALPHA, and HP/UX –
and I’ll tell ya what – HP/UX is considered a mainframe UNIX
platform – and – frankly – it probably could run APACHE really
fast.

So generally
speaking – I still
think using “mainframes” is not out of the question to host a web
server.

OK. But your mainframes are more Linux/Unix than mine. Mine runs MCP
(Master Control Program) which is a OS way, way different from
Linux/Unix.

Also, in our case, we would have to write CGI programs in Cobol ! I do
a lot of things in Cobol but, definitively building a html page from it
does not sound like a productive thing. Imagine having to compile it
for a single < b > change ! No way. It also does not have
something like a text (ASCII) file. It's files are blocked.

But, OK, each installation has it's own issues.

Back to our point which is the FastCGI server.

I'm very, very inclined to Lighthttpd but it seems raw under Windows.

You guys out there are using it ?

It has native FastCGI support !

Jason

-----Original
Message-----

From: Jose Adriano
Baltieri
[ mailto:jabaltie-a/[email protected] ]

Sent: Monday, July 17,
2006 12:39
PM

To: Jason P Sage

Subject: Re: [FASTCGI]
Writing my
own FastCGI Server

Jason P
Sage wrote:

CGI's on a mainframe? Why not!?! Hmmm. A mainframe as a web server can't be

bad.

Only if
you have money
for that ! Have you thought about how much CPU you need to offer a good
perfomance ? Have you thought about security issues ? Well, in our
case,
having a good perfomance on the mainframe is very , very expensive.
Also,
mainframe doesnt like TCP/IP very much. For instance : if you run a
PortScan
over it, you may put it on its knees. So we must insulate it.

Another point : students are very, very curious and creative. They'd
love to
know where grades are stored ! We prefer to keep them far, far away
from the
grades database.

Anyway, I would not do it but, if you want, go ahead !

-----Original Message-----

From: fastcgi-developers-bounces+jasonpsage=jegas.com-xGejAJT2w6xVgU18Zptdi0EOCMrvLtNR@public.gmane.org

[ mailto:fastcgi-developers-bounces+jasonpsage=jegas.com-xGejAJT2w6xVgU18Zptdi0EOCMrvLtNR@public.gmane.org ]

On Behalf Of Jose Adriano Baltieri

Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 10:57 AM

To: fastcgi-developers-xGejAJT2w6yOE5Ap4OspEtHuzzzSOjJt@public.gmane.org

Subject: Re: [FASTCGI] Writing my own FastCGI Server

Jeffrey H. Coffield wrote:

From your message, it sounds like you have the skills to do this. RFC

2616 will tell you what a web server

needs to do. I wrote my own web server because of security reasons.

Apache has too many features to keep

up with. All I needed was static pages and FastCGI. No PHP, Perl, Asp,

xyx, blah, blah, blah...

Yes, I'd like to write my own http server, of course. But I think that

is too much responsibility. I'm also thinking seriously about

Lighthttpd. It has native fastcgi support .

If I had to write my own httpserver, I'd use XB2NET which is a product

that already has a httpd class. I'd simply inherit from it.

But I'd have to purchase this product whereas using FastCGI I could go

around and get free stuff.

My main recommendation is to be extremely careful on how url's are

translated into file names. This is probably

the most important pieces of a web server. A mistake or unintended

"feature" here can leave your system wide

open to attacks.

In my case I could say I only accept 1 URL : the one to my dynamic

content page.

You could look at moving the web server to your Unisys if it supports

TCP/IP but it is not considered good

security practice to have an Internet web server running on the same

system as your databases. Usually the

web servers are in some sort of DMZ.

Not at all. Unisys mainframe OS does have a http server called Atlas.

But who would run a http server on a mainframe ? Have you though about

CGIs on a mainframe ?

Way, way too expensive !

My final recommendation is to look at moving off of Windows to some

operating system that scales better

and is inherently more secure.

Yes, this would be nice but, I'd have to rewrite it all, from bottom up.

Anyway, thanks 4 your support !

Jeff Coffield

--

Obrigado,

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jose Adriano Baltieri - Analista de Sistemas

DTI - CENTRO - UNIMEP - Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba

PIRACICABA - SP - Brasil - Fone : (19) 3124-1858

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Obrigado,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jose Adriano Baltieri - Analista de Sistemas
DTI - CENTRO - UNIMEP - Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba
PIRACICABA - SP - Brasil - Fone : (19) 3124-1858
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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