Understand the Point of Servers

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:05Welcome to the CompTIA Server+ playlist that we have here

0:09at CBT Nuggets.

0:10Now, I can't tell you right now how excited

0:13I am to be recording this content because this right here

0:17is the stuff that I wished I had known when

0:21I started working with servers.

0:22You see, I really started out working with networks.

0:26I worked with networking switches, routers, firewalls.

0:29I was really good at subnetting, routing protocols, blah, blah,

0:32blah, blah.

0:32And then I jumped into servers, and I

0:35was completely overwhelmed by the tremendous number of things

0:40that they can do.

0:41Even physically working with servers,

0:44putting them into a rack and installing them,

0:46and understanding power requirements and things

0:49like that, just became overwhelming really, really

0:52fast.

0:53So whether I wanted to be an engineer, or just

0:55an administrator, or just someone in monitoring,

0:58whatever the case was, I figured out pretty quick

1:01that the server world is an entirely different beast

1:04or an entirely different animal in its own right.

1:07So what my plan to do here is, throughout this playlist,

1:11is to help you grow into the server role

1:14that you want to be in.

1:15That way, you'll understand how to physically work

1:18with servers-- what different sizes, and shapes, and forms,

1:21and options you have when it comes to picking out a server

1:25and deploying a server.

1:26What can the server really do at the end of the day?

1:30What's the point of a server?

1:31In fact, that's what we're going to start with first,

1:34is what is a server?

1:36What does it serve?

1:37And what are the different things that it can serve?

1:40That's what we talk about when we talk about the roles

1:43that servers play in our infrastructure.

1:45So I'm excited about this content,

1:47and I hope you are too.

1:48Because we're about to dive right into it

1:50and start talking about, what is a server,

1:53and what does it serve?

1:54Let's get going.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:06When we talk about computers, in general, we just

0:09think of these machines that do-- you click,

0:11you point, you type, and it does all the stuff for us.

0:14But we've never really given a whole lot of consideration

0:16to what really happens when we turn our computer on.

0:21How does the computer know how to do things

0:23like get out to the internet?

0:25How does the computer know how to do things

0:27like access files that aren't on that computer?

0:30This is the magic of servers.

0:32And what we really need to do is we

0:34need to define where a server starts and stops

0:37with our infrastructure.

0:39And what are the other devices that

0:40are trying to connect to that server?

0:42What we're really saying here is we're

0:44going to break down the definition and the difference

0:46between a client and a server in this video.

0:49This is going to be important to understand so that we can start

0:52to see what the roles that servers play in our environment

0:56does for our clients.

0:58Let's get going.

0:58So we're going to begin our journey by demystifying what

1:02even is the point of a server?

1:04Why is it even called a server?

1:06What do servers do?

1:08I remember, when I first started getting into tech,

1:11you would hear the word server.

1:13And you would just think of this gigantic, abstract term--

1:17server.

1:17You didn't realize that there were actually

1:20many different kinds of servers, no different from how there are

1:24many different kinds of IT employees

1:27or just like there's many different kinds of doctors

1:29or many different kinds of lawyers.

1:31There's all sorts of specializations,

1:34and servers are no different from that.

1:36And that's the entire point of this skill,

1:38really, is to talk about at a high level, what

1:41are these different types of specializations?

1:44But what does a server do at the end of the day?

1:47That's what we're talking about here.

1:49So I want you to think about this for a second.

1:51You walk into your office.

1:53You sit down in your chair.

1:55You press the power button on your computer.

1:57What happens next?

1:59Here's you, you're smiling.

2:00And this is going to be your computer.

2:02I'm just going to draw computers like little boxes here.

2:06You sit down.

2:07And you sit down, you press the power button on your computer.

2:10Your computer, of course, plugs into the wall.

2:12It's got power.

2:13But it's also got maybe an Ethernet jack

2:16that it plugs into the wall as well.

2:19And then, from there something happens, right?

2:21And everything else takes over.

2:23The computer boots up, and mysteriously,

2:26somehow, we now have access to the public internet.

2:30We can now browse the internet.

2:32We can now download files.

2:34We can now shop on Amazon.

2:36Or maybe we have access to all of these files that

2:40are within our network.

2:41We like to call them like the Z drive or the I drive or the J

2:45drive.

2:45What is really the deal with those drives?

2:48Or maybe there's an internal application that we access.

2:51Sometimes we call this the intranet.

2:54And that way, we access our internal application

2:57through a web browser, and we use that application

2:59to do our work.

3:00How does all of this really work?

3:02Well, that was just one fine example of you sitting down

3:05at your computer.

3:06But now think about what happens when

3:08the person who sits next to you comes

3:10into the office or the next person sits in--

3:13and comes into the office and sits down at their computer?

3:15And the next person comes in and sits down at their computer,

3:18and they all turn it on.

3:19All of these things just mysteriously

3:21happen when everyone turns on their computer.

3:24But behind the scenes, what's really going on

3:27is these computers are each known as clients.

3:32Sometimes they're also known as workstations.

3:35Sometimes they're also known as computers or desktops.

3:39Sometimes they're known as endpoints.

3:42The point is, these are all devices

3:45that we use to be productive.

3:47And when we turn these computers on,

3:49what really happens behind the scenes

3:52is these devices are making all sorts of requests.

3:57They're begging.

3:58They're shouting into the network over the Ethernet cable

4:01asking for something.

4:03Somebody answer my questions, please

4:06because I have questions about how we're supposed

4:09to be accessing the internet.

4:11I have questions about how we're supposed

4:13to be accessing the intranet.

4:15I have questions about how we're supposed to be accessing

4:19all of these different files.

4:20Heck, even when you sit down at your computer,

4:23and you type in your username and password,

4:25something centrally is trying to determine if that username

4:29and password is even accurate, if you're even allowed

4:32to log into the computer.

4:33At the end of the day, all of these questions

4:36are being asked by these clients,

4:38and something has to respond to it.

4:41Guess what it is?

4:42It is a server.

4:43The server does exactly that.

4:46It exists to serve all of these requests that are coming in.

4:51Now, these requests are really broken down

4:53into different categories.

4:55And there's not just one overarching server

4:59that answers every single request that comes in.

5:01We can actually deploy a bunch of different servers

5:05that are specialized to answer these different types

5:08of requests.

5:09For instance, we may have a computer

5:11that plugs into the wall.

5:12We press power.

5:13And the very first thing it requests is, what is my IP

5:18address so that I can access the network?

5:21How do I find resources on the internet?

5:25These are very networking-specific requests.

5:28So that may be sent to our networking-style server.

5:31Here Knox's his head is in the way a little bit.

5:33This client right here may be asking,

5:37how do I access our main files that we use internally

5:41in our organization?

5:42And that request may be handled by the file server, which,

5:46its role in life, is to only serve the purpose of serving up

5:50files to everybody else.

5:52This device here might be trying to access the intranet

5:55through a web browser.

5:57So its requests may be sent over here

5:59to what's called a web server.

6:01Now, we're going to be digging into the details about what all

6:03of these different servers really mean

6:06and even, what does it look like to actually configure

6:08one of these servers?

6:09Do they all need to be completely separate servers?

6:12The answers lie within.

6:14And that's what really--

6:15what really this entire playlist is all about is,

6:17how do these individual servers really work,

6:20and how do they act together?

6:22For now, the big point that you need to take away

6:24is that we have servers.

6:26And their sole purpose in life is

6:28to answer the questions of desktops.

6:31Even right now, in your home, you're

6:34running servers, whether you realize it or not.

6:36Remember you've got this router.

6:38Maybe you're getting it from your service provider.

6:40You're leasing it from your service provider

6:41or you provided your own.

6:43At the end of the day, your phone,

6:45your cell phone wants to connect to the Wi-Fi.

6:47And guess what?

6:48It needs an IP address.

6:49So the router will double as a server

6:52and hand out IP addresses.

6:53This is all the interesting stuff

6:55that, when you dig into the actual roles that servers play,

6:58you're going to realize pretty quickly that you've

7:00been exposed to this this whole time and never even realized.

7:03Now, the last thing I want to walk away with

7:04is why are servers so big?

7:07Why are those so powerful?

7:08And why are they so expensive?

7:10Well, the idea is that you could potentially

7:12have dozens, hundreds, thousands of requests per second.

7:18And we need to have a big powerful machine that's

7:21able to handle and answer all of these requests.

7:24I mean, think about a three- or four-story building.

7:26That's not uncommon.

7:27That's a medium-sized business.

7:29Maybe it's got 300 or 400 employees,

7:32and each of those employees has, of course, their desktop.

7:34Maybe they have a laptop.

7:35Maybe they have a tablet.

7:37Maybe they have a cell phone.

7:38And all of that is connected.

7:39And all of a sudden, we could potentially

7:41have thousands of devices within our infrastructure

7:45of a 300-employee building.

7:46And all of a sudden, all of those devices

7:48are trying to do things constantly-- reach out

7:51to the internet and download files,

7:54maybe like software updates, or reach through internally

7:57to download files, or find the intranet, or things like that.

8:01The reason why we don't want to have to have--

8:03we want to buy one gigantic server that can

8:06serve all of these requests.

8:07And that way, we have one single device that we can configure.

8:11But of course, we keep redundancy

8:12in mind along the way.

8:13There's principles about redundancy

8:15that we're going to be talking about,

8:16especially when we get into the physical installation

8:19of servers and start to understand that a little bit

8:20more.

8:21For now, the big takeaway in this video

8:23is that the point of a server is to serve the requests that

8:27are provided by clients, the many, many, many

8:29different clients that we have throughout our entire

8:32infrastructure.

8:32Now, through the upcoming videos,

8:34we're going to talk about the different kinds of servers

8:37that could really exist in your environment.

8:39And then we'll actually talk about,

8:40what does it mean to actually deploy

8:42one of these kinds of servers?

8:44We'll take a look at it from the perspective of Windows.

8:46I hope this has been informative for you.

8:48And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:06I guess in the intro, I did say that I started out more

0:09as a networking guy than a server guy.

0:11But throughout my career, I became quite a bit of both.

0:14And I would argue that if the network doesn't work,

0:18absolutely nothing works.

0:19How many times have we seen, or at least thought about,

0:22that person standing over your shoulder going, hey,

0:24the network doesn't work.

0:25And then they stand there until you fix it, right?

0:28That's kind of what we're talking about here.

0:29So what we need to first focus on is, what kinds of servers

0:34manage our networks?

0:35How do servers help our network come to life?

0:39This is going to be a very important role

0:41that a server can play within our infrastructure.

0:44So let's take a look at the networking roles

0:46that servers can play.

0:47I'll see you there.

0:48In the previous video, we setup the concept

0:50that there were two types of servers.

0:52And one of those types of servers was networking servers.

0:55They serve a role within our infrastructure

0:58to help facilitate how our clients will get around

1:02the network.

1:03One of the very first things that we're going to talk about

1:05is, when we turn a computer on, we press the power button,

1:08one of the absolute very first things

1:11that these computers do is they start reaching out.

1:14They start shouting-- broadcasting is the key term--

1:17out to this Ethernet cable, hey, I'm alive.

1:21But what I need is I need someone

1:23to give me an IP address.

1:25That way, I can identify myself on the network

1:28and now I can be routed throughout the topology

1:31or out to the internet.

1:32This process is using a protocol called DHCP.

1:38We're not going to get too much into DHCP

1:41right now in this video.

1:42There is a whole lot of dedicated content in DHCP.

1:45The thing that I want to point out right now

1:48is that when this thing starts shouting out into the network,

1:51it's sending a message called discover.

1:53I'm trying to discover where I configure out my IP address.

1:58And someone needs to discover me and hand me an IP address back.

2:02Guess what?

2:03In this case, we have what is called, very cleverly,

2:06a DHCP server.

2:09And this DHCP server is configured

2:12to respond to discover requests.

2:14When it receives a packet in on its Ethernet cable

2:18that's sent out to absolutely everybody--

2:20because it's shouting.

2:21It's shouting out to the entire network, hey,

2:23somebody give me an IP address.

2:25The DHCP server is going to receive that

2:27and say, wait a minute.

2:28I'm configured to respond to these types of requests.

2:32And guess what?

2:32I have this gigantic pool of IP addresses

2:36that I can hand back to you.

2:37So I'll pick one out of that pool and send it back to you.

2:41The cool thing about this is this DHCP server keeps

2:44track of exactly which clients have received which IP address,

2:49and it rotates them in such a way

2:51that they're not permanently reserved

2:53for each one of these clients.

2:54If the computer shuts down, if the client shuts its computer

2:57down, it could more or less release the IP address back

3:01into the pool so that others can come along and get it later.

3:04So this is one of the very first networking

3:06servers and networking roles that

3:08exist, is the moment you turn a computer on, it's

3:11going to use the DHCP protocol to try and discover a DHCP

3:16server and find an IP address.

3:19The DHCP server will already be plugged in,

3:22and running, and listening for these discover messages

3:25so that it can pick an IP address out of the pool

3:28and send it back towards the clients, and say, hey, here

3:31you go.

3:31Here's your IP address and here's your default gateway

3:33so you can get out.

3:35And then there's one more thing about this DHCP request

3:38that it provides back.

3:40And that is the option to provide DNS options, or really,

3:45DNS servers.

3:47What's DNS all about?

3:48Domain Name Service, in networking terms.

3:51This is probably a website you've typed a few times

3:53in your life, google.com.

3:56You type in that domain name, google.com, and guess what?

4:00google.com is not what's used throughout the actual network

4:04itself.

4:04When this client here goes to google.com, what it really

4:08has to find out is, what is google.com's IP address?

4:13That way, we can send our packet directly

4:15to the google.com server.

4:18So what we have to do is we, humans,

4:20are really good at remembering these names.

4:22We're not so good at remembering IP addresses.

4:24So we have a server called a DNS server--

4:27Domain Name Service server--

4:29and its sole purpose is to take what we type in

4:33and translate that into the correct IP address.

4:36So when our DHCP server sends IP addresses back,

4:40it's going to, first of all, send an IP address.

4:42But it's also going to send the default gateway,

4:45like we've already said, as well as what DNS servers are.

4:48Now maybe the DHCP server is also a DNS server,

4:52or maybe a completely separate server

4:54is going to be a DNS server.

4:56The point is when our computer types in google.com, it's

5:00going to have to go look up, where does google.com really

5:03live?

5:04And it'll send a request directly

5:06to a DNS server, who will reply with-- make something

5:10up-- like 12.49.31.15.

5:13Sorry if that's your IP address.

5:14I just made that up on the fly.

5:16And now this computer knows, OK, when it's time for me

5:20to go to google.com, here's the IP address that I can send out

5:24into the internet.

5:25I can send my packet to this IP address right

5:27here, out into the internet, and google.com will now

5:31be able to handle my request.

5:32There's a lot more networking server roles out there

5:35in the wild--

5:36I mean a whole lot more.

5:37But these are really the two big whoppers.

5:39Whenever you're deploying infrastructure,

5:41these are probably going to be the very first two things

5:45you deploy, because without IP addresses

5:47and without network connectivity,

5:49we really don't have much going on for us.

5:51So the DHCP server and the DNS server

5:53are absolutely critical roles to fill,

5:56so that way, all of our clients in our other servers

5:59can get connectivity into the network.

6:01I want to show you this.

6:02Here on the screen, I have a Windows Server pulled up.

6:06It looks kind of like Windows 10.

6:08At the time that we're recording this, Windows 10 is out.

6:11Windows 11 is going to be rolling out later this year.

6:14This looks like Windows 10, doesn't it?

6:15That's because, basically, Microsoft architects

6:19their clients and their servers on the same underlying

6:22operating system.

6:24The thing that differs is that the server

6:26has a couple little abilities where you can actually

6:28tell it what role it serves.

6:30So what I'm going to do is I'm going to unlock this.

6:32Don't worry about what you're actually seeing on the screen

6:34here.

6:35All of the stuff that's going on around it, this

6:37is a special type of operating system called ESXi.

6:41We're going to talk a lot more about virtualization and ESXi

6:45in upcoming content.

6:46So just for now, focus in on this box right

6:48here, where it looks like Windows is pulled up.

6:51I'm going to get signed in.

6:53Oop, wrong password.

6:54And yeah, take a look at what we got here.

6:56If I click the Start button, it looks exactly like Windows 10.

7:00The difference is that this Windows Server operating

7:04system comes with a piece of software called Server Manager.

7:07And the very cool thing about this is on our servers,

7:10we install the Windows Server operating system

7:13just as it is, just Windows Server as the operating system.

7:17There's not Windows Server networking.

7:19There's not Windows Server files.

7:20There's not Windows Server web server.

7:22There's just Windows Server.

7:24And then once we've got the operating system installed,

7:27we can actually come to Manage, and Add Roles and Features,

7:31and then walk through the little wizard

7:33and tell it exactly what role, or what purpose,

7:36or what kind of server it will be

7:38running in our infrastructure.

7:40So I know that the font's a little small here.

7:43But if you look right there where those checkboxes are

7:45checked, look.

7:46I've already installed the DHCP Server role and the DNS Server

7:51role on this operating system.

7:53All I had to do was click the checkbox,

7:55and click Next, and Install, and guess what?

7:57We've now turned this Windows Server operating

8:00system into a DHCP server and into a DNS server.

8:04And now it can respond to these types of requests,

8:07after a little bit of extra configuration,

8:09once we actually setup the DHCP server.

8:11I want to show you what that looks like real quick.

8:13This is going to be a very high level.

8:15Of course, this is a vendor-agnostic playlist.

8:18This is just to show you the examples.

8:20For instance, this little icon here is the DHCP server.

8:23So if I expand it out, under IPv4, we

8:26can see over here on this side, I've

8:29got some different IPv4 scopes setup--

8:31basically, pools of IP addresses.

8:34I've got a scope setup for IOT devices.

8:37I've got a scope set up for HR devices.

8:39I've got a scope setup for my wireless access points.

8:42So when all of these devices plugin

8:44to the correct interfaces and the correct subnets, or VLANs,

8:48within our environment, this DHCP server

8:51can respond to each one of them and hand out the correct IP

8:54addresses, as well as DNS information.

8:57As far as DNS goes, I'll show you this real quick, too.

9:00When I expand this, real quick, I've

9:02set up a internal domain called nuggetlab.local.

9:05And when somebody types in that they

9:07want to access dc-nug, an A record tells it,

9:11well, dc-nug is exactly on this IP address.

9:14And in the event that somebody requests a URL or a domain

9:18that we don't support, like google.com, this device

9:22is configured to do DNS forwarding.

9:25So it has an upstream DNS server going out towards the internet,

9:29where it can look up further domains

9:31if it doesn't have the answer.

9:33Then-- very cool of it-- it caches that

9:36answer so that when the next client comes along

9:38and requests google.com, it already knows the answer

9:41and it doesn't have to do a forward lookup after that.

9:44So this is just to give you a feel for what

9:46does it really look like to turn a server into a specific kind

9:49of server?

9:50And how do we actually go about configuring these, at least

9:53on the Windows Server side of things?

9:54I want to stress this right now.

9:56You don't have to use Windows.

9:57Windows isn't the only kind of device

10:00that can run a DHCP server or a DNS server.

10:02All of your networking devices can do it

10:04and Linux can do it, too.

10:06So it's just nice to know that you

10:08have all of this flexibility.

10:09These are open, standard protocols

10:12that basically every vendor out there implements.

10:14It's just for familiarity purposes.

10:16We're all pretty familiar with Windows at this point,

10:18so this is what it looks like from the Windows Server

10:21side of things.

10:21So this has been understanding the network server role.

10:24I hope this has been informative for you,

10:25and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:06Probably the most well known role

0:08that a server can play in an entire infrastructure

0:11is the file server.

0:13And why is it the most well-known role?

0:15It's because every single employee in the infrastructure

0:18will use it at some point.

0:20This is a centralized place where

0:22we can store all of our files that the users want

0:27to use and access all the time.

0:28So what's the point of the file server?

0:31Why do we even need it in the first place?

0:33That's what this video is all about.

0:35Let's get to know what file shares and file servers really

0:38do.

0:38I'll see you there.

0:39Now this is an interesting one, because it seems really, really

0:43simple at first.

0:44But then when you dig into it, you

0:45realize pretty quickly that it's very complicated.

0:48Systems administrators spend a tremendous amount

0:51of time getting the file server set up.

0:54What is a file server?

0:55Well at the end of the day, you log into your computer.

0:58But you only have so much disk space, right?

1:01Maybe, super generous employer, and you

1:05get 1 terabyte of disk space on your computer.

1:08However, you have a need to collaborate

1:12with your other peers, with the people that you work with.

1:15So you're working on a file here.

1:18And then somebody else comes along

1:20they log in to their computer.

1:21And they need to access that file.

1:24So yeah, you could email it to them.

1:25But then they would have to edit it

1:27and then email the latest copy back to you.

1:29Meanwhile, you could be editing in at the same time.

1:31So you got an email the updates back to them.

1:33You see, this gets out of hand quickly.

1:35And we're only talking about a scenario, where two people are

1:38working on the same file.

1:40So you know, then there's somebody

1:42else who comes into the mix.

1:43And they need to work on that file too.

1:45And then guess what, your 1 terabyte hard drive craps out

1:48on you.

1:49And all of a sudden, you've lost that file and you

1:52have no way of backing it up.

1:54This is all a big, big problem when

1:56we have files sprawled out all over the place,

1:59located on only one disk drive that

2:02could fail at any given moment.

2:04So what we end up doing as server administrators

2:07and systems engineers is that we centralize file storage

2:12over the network.

2:13So all of these clients can now access files and folders

2:17over the network as if they're attached

2:20to their local computer.

2:21Oftentimes, you see this show up as something like an I drive

2:25or J drive or a Z drive.

2:28Or something like that.

2:29Of course, we know our local computers

2:30are going to have something like a C drive.

2:32That's what we always install to.

2:34And of course, the old school A and B drives

2:36were reserved for 3 and 1/2 inch floppy drives.

2:38And D drives were reserved for disk drives.

2:41But what happened after that?

2:43All of these other letters of the alphabet are left over.

2:45And that's what we can purpose for our file server.

2:49So our file server may have a tremendous amount

2:52of disk space.

2:53This could be something like--

2:54make up something like 10 terabytes or 20 terabytes.

2:58In very large infrastructures, you

3:00have petabytes or exabytes that are available to you.

3:04And beyond that, they live on redundant storage drives.

3:08So if one of the drives gives out,

3:10that's OK, because we didn't lose anything.

3:13But beyond that, we also run backup software.

3:16So that we regularly take backups of all of the files.

3:20So if the entire server goes down or gets washed away

3:23in a flood, that's OK because we have backups of everybody's

3:27files throughout the entire organization,

3:30throughout the entire operating system.

3:32Now the other cool things about it is we can assign--

3:35we can create folders here on the drive.

3:39And we can set these folders to either

3:41be visible by multiple people as part of a group.

3:44Or we can set folders to only be visible for individual users.

3:49So we could say, let's say, this is Karen here.

3:52We could set this folder to be Karen's private folder.

3:55And this is Bob here.

3:57We could set this folder here to be Bob's private folder.

4:00But then let's say Karen and Bob are part of an HR group.

4:05So in this folder we could create the HR folder

4:08that they can share with each other.

4:10And this is where it starts to get complicated.

4:12It's not so much about creating folders and then enabling

4:15the sharing.

4:16It becomes all about structuring the folders in such a way

4:20that they're hierarchical.

4:21We start off with large groups of people

4:24that can access the folders.

4:25And then we get into smaller groups and smaller groups

4:28and smaller groups, until we drill down

4:30to the individuals themselves.

4:32Then we have to control what their permissions are.

4:35Are they allowed to read, write, and delete in this folder?

4:38Are they allowed to read only in this folder?

4:40And this is what a sysadmin spends a tremendous amount

4:44of time doing, which in the Windows world

4:46is controlling NTFS permission.

4:49NTFS is where we associate what a user's file permissions are

4:55given their user name and when they

4:57log in to the network in the first place.

4:59When someone logs in, like Bob here,

5:01when they log in to the network they

5:02type in their username and password.

5:04Immediately, the network knows where

5:06Bob lives, what its IP address is,

5:09and what computer Bob is coming from,

5:11and what permissions does Bob have to access specific files

5:16and folders on the file server.

5:18That's the big thing that sysadmins

5:20spend a lot of time doing.

5:21And again, this is a vendor neutral certification playlist.

5:24So we're not going to talk about how to do that.

5:27That's what the Windows Server playlists are all about.

5:29Just wanted you to know that the file

5:31servers play a very big role.

5:33And that's not just necessarily having a place to store files.

5:37But it's also a place to keep files on redundant storage

5:40as well as backup the files that we have.

5:43That way in the event of a disaster,

5:45we can still get to all of our files

5:47that are being backed up regularly.

5:49Again, I want you to think big picture here.

5:52We could potentially have hundreds or thousands

5:55of employees who all need file storage.

5:58And they need to secure their file storage.

6:00And they need to backup their file storage.

6:01And that's again, why file servers, big, big servers,

6:04we pay a lot for them.

6:06We pay a lot for that storage.

6:07So this has been understanding the role

6:09of a file server in a network.

6:11I hope this has been informative for you.

6:12And I would like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:06If the file server is the most well known

0:08and accepted server type that there is an environment,

0:11then I would argue that a close number 2 is the web server.

0:15The web server, is a device that, well, serves web pages.

0:18That way when you open up your web browser

0:20and you browse to a website, a server

0:23is the one that is actually serving the content

0:25that you interact with.

0:26Now, I'll say this right now, this

0:28sets up a bigger conversation about how the internet and web

0:32applications really work.

0:34But we're going to start off simple by talking about what

0:36they call the front-end application, which

0:39is going to be our website.

0:40So let's talk about what web servers do

0:42in an infrastructure.

0:43I'll see you there.

0:43Now, this one is pretty interesting

0:45because many people don't realize

0:47how browsing the internet really works.

0:50I mean, you're probably watching this in a web browser

0:52right now, aren't you?

0:53Have you ever given thought about what is actually,

0:56happening behind the scenes when you type in a website, a URL,

1:00and you press Enter?

1:01Well first of all, we know that DNS

1:02takes place, where the requests like google.com

1:06resolves to an IP address.

1:08But what is that IP address that we're

1:09trying to get to at the end of the day?

1:12That IP address, is the front facing

1:15IP address of a web server.

1:17And what is our browser really, doing at the end of the day

1:19when we try and go to that IP address?

1:21We use the HTTP protocol to actually,

1:25transmit information that we're trying

1:27to request from a web server.

1:29Let's pretend for a second that we're

1:31trying to get to google.com, and we're going over the public.

1:34And I like to pick on Google, because everybody knows that.

1:37We open up a web browser, we type google.com,

1:40DNS takes place and it says, OK, if you

1:42want to get to google.com, here's

1:44the IP address of that web server.

1:47So the HTTP protocol builds a packet

1:49that's destined for google.com, and it

1:52goes over the internet towards google.com,

1:53but then what really happens under the hood?

1:57Under the hood, the web server receives our request,

2:00and it replies with the information

2:03that we need to turn it into a website.

2:05What is that information?

2:06Typically, it's just an HTML document, like a text document,

2:10or any other document that you've ever downloaded before.

2:13All that's really, taking place in our browser,

2:16is we're using the HTTP protocol to request an HTML document,

2:21and the HTTP protocol from the web server

2:24replies with the HTML document.

2:26So our browser downloads the HTML document, it reads it,

2:31and it turns it into a human usable website

2:34that we actually-- it just interprets that code,

2:36and turns it into a website.

2:37That's it.

2:38That's fundamentally, it at the end of the day.

2:41Now, there is more to it, and that's

2:42what the next videos are talking about when we talk about web

2:45applications, but a static generic website

2:48at the end of the day, that's all there is to it.

2:50Is we're just downloading documents,

2:52and we use the HTTP protocol to do that.

2:55DNS, is what gets us to the web server

2:58and then, of course, routers and networks

3:00themselves get us to the web server,

3:01but the web server itself at the end of the day,

3:04is nothing more than a publicly facing

3:06file server that serves up HTML documents

3:10and other supporting documents that

3:11are used to render a website.

3:13Our browser, like Chrome, or Edge, or Firefox, or Brave,

3:18whichever one you're using right now,

3:20it's doing nothing more, than building the HTTP requests,

3:24receiving the documents back, and downloading them.

3:26Check this out.

3:27So I browsed in my Brave web browser here to opensea.io.

3:32This is a website, it's a open marketplace

3:34for purchasing and selling NFTs, Non-fungible Tokens, basically,

3:39for trading artwork on a blockchain.

3:41And I've got this cool little dog here

3:43that I've got up for sale.

3:45It's like little robo cyber dog it's really, really cool.

3:48If I press F12 on my web browser,

3:50brings up the developer tools, which I think is pretty neat.

3:53But when I go to the actual network section here,

3:56and I refresh the page with an F5, look at this.

3:59Well, you see all of these?

4:00These are the actual network transactions

4:03that went back and forth, that were used to render

4:06this document, this website.

4:07And what are they really here?

4:09These are just JavaScript files.

4:10If you see where I'm hovering--

4:11I know it's kind of small font again--

4:13but these are little .JS files.

4:15All of these JavaScript files are

4:17downloaded by my web browser, and then immediately used

4:20to render this website.

4:22So when I go to this website first of all, opensea.io,

4:25DNS translates that into an IP address.

4:30Look, I can do nslookup opensea.io,

4:34and there's the IP addresses right there that come back.

4:36From my command line, I can now resolve

4:39both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses, and I can try any one of these

4:44to reach out over the internet to get to this website.

4:47From there when I find the exact files

4:49that I want to access and view, it

4:52downloads all of these different JavaScript and HTML files

4:55here what we've seen in the network activity,

4:57and the web browser very quickly interprets each one of them

5:01to build the visual website that we see here and interact with.

5:04So this is what a web server does at the end of the day.

5:07When web developers generate their website,

5:09what are they doing?

5:10They're really just coding HTML and JavaScript documents.

5:13Then, they put them on the web server,

5:15who's then enabled to serve out all of this content.

5:18Now, I want to stress the different kinds of web servers.

5:21In the Windows world, there is the IIS role.

5:27Just like we saw before when we were installing DHCP and DNS

5:30roles, we go through that same wizard,

5:32and we can install the web server role, which

5:34installs the IIS application.

5:37Windows Server runs IIS to serve web content.

5:40In the Linux world, this is honestly,

5:43the more common web servers that you will see in the world

5:46today.

5:47Probably the most common web server

5:49that exists on the internet is Apache.

5:51This is, again, an application that you can install on Linux.

5:55But an alternative to Apache that is, again, very popular,

5:58is NGinx, that is N-G-I-N-X, and it's pronounced engine X.

6:04That is another important thing to understand because I see

6:07a lot of people stumble with that,

6:09but that's how this is pronounced.

6:11So whether you're running Windows on IIS web servers,

6:14or you're running Linux, you may be running Apache or NGinx

6:16servers, this is what you're going

6:18to run into in the world whenever

6:19you administer web server.

6:20So I hope this has been informative for you,

6:22and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:06Now, this stuff right here.

0:07This content that you're about to watch,

0:09this is where I break away from a structured playlist

0:13format that's going to follow exactly what the exam does,

0:16and start to talk about things in the real world.

0:18One of the things that I really wrestled

0:21with when I was a consultant and I was working with servers

0:24was actually understanding why specific types of servers

0:29exist, and why they're called an app server, or a database

0:32server, or a web server in the first place.

0:35And in order to really understand that,

0:37you need to understand the architecture

0:41of a modern application.

0:42Now, yes, this is a software development topic.

0:45But you, as a systems administrator or a systems

0:48engineer, you should really take just a couple minutes

0:51to learn why we're rolling out the servers that we're rolling,

0:55and how do they all interact with each other.

0:58That's what this video is all about.

0:59And that is going to be focused in

1:01on what does today's modern application really look like.

1:04I'll see you there.

1:05So this video is a little bit of a pause, a break

1:08momentarily to talk for a second about how applications work,

1:12how web apps specifically work and how developers, well,

1:16develop these applications.

1:17And you may be thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute.

1:19I don't want to be a developer.

1:21I don't want to learn code."

1:23That's fine.

1:24You don't have to.

1:25But the thing that I've encountered

1:26in my own personal experience that I think needs

1:29to be addressed is the fact that most systems administrators

1:33or systems engineers don't actually

1:36understand the applications that are running

1:39on their infrastructure.

1:41They don't really understand why they

1:44have to deploy these servers in the first place.

1:46And that's because they don't fundamentally understand

1:48how modern applications work.

1:50In order to know how to support applications

1:53by deploying software, you need to have

1:55a fundamental understanding of how apps work.

1:58Now, what am I talking about when

1:59I talk about web apps in the first place?

2:01I want you to think about any time

2:04that you've interacted with a website.

2:07Maybe you searched for a product.

2:09You added it into your shopping cart.

2:11You purchased it by charging a credit card,

2:14and then it was delivered to your address.

2:16That's actually an application that

2:18was just built into a website.

2:20And the real kicker here is that we talked about the web server

2:24in the last video.

2:25That's how you access the website and download the code.

2:28But it's not how you actually interact with the website.

2:32It's not where you actually charge your credit card.

2:34There are actually a bunch of servers

2:37that all work together to make that one application seem

2:40like a seamless experience.

2:42So let's kind of talk it out for a second.

2:44Here you are.

2:45You're on your computer.

2:46Right here, here's that little box that's your computer.

2:48And you're going to reach out across the internet.

2:51Let's pick on Amazon this time.

2:53So we make our way over here to Amazon's web server.

2:57I'm just going to write AMZN.

3:00And now we're interacting with Amazon's website.

3:03But there are utilities on that website.

3:06First of all, at the very top of that website,

3:09there's going to be a search bar.

3:11And you can dynamically type your own text into that search

3:15bar, and when you click a button,

3:17you're triggering the application

3:19to go get information.

3:21So for instance, let's say we're going to search

3:23for CAT 5E patch cables, right?

3:26We want to buy some patch cables,

3:28just like you've seen me browse on Amazon already

3:31throughout this series of courses.

3:33What really happens then?

3:35How does it really work?

3:36The web server that's running the website

3:38has just enough code deployed on it

3:41to where it can grab the text that you type in,

3:45and then send it to the next tier of the application.

3:48This is called the app server.

3:51Typically, it's called the app server,

3:52or it's sometimes called a middle tier

3:54server, or a middleware server.

3:56And basically, what the web server's job is to do

3:59is just to grab your request and hand it off

4:03to the app server that actually processes and handles

4:07your requests.

4:07So this text that you've got here, this CAT 5E patch cable,

4:11is going to be sent to the app server, which is running code

4:15behind the scenes.

4:15It's code that you don't physically

4:17see with your own eyes.

4:18There's not like a website that's running.

4:20There's just code that's running and listening for a command,

4:23or an instruction.

4:24In this case, the web server says,

4:27hey, the user has requested CAT 5E patch cables, so it's

4:31on you, app server, to go retrieve all the data that they

4:35asked for, and send it back towards the web

4:38server in such a way that it can present it to you.

4:41So the app server takes our CAT 5E patch cable request

4:45and translates that into a database query,

4:49because somewhere on Amazon's infrastructure

4:52they have a tremendous database that's

4:54just full of data about their products, prices,

4:57SKU numbers, availability, shipping

5:00information, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

5:02So the app server creates a programmatic query

5:06to pull the exact data out of the database

5:08and sends it back to the app server.

5:10The app server then takes those query results,

5:12those structured results, and translates them

5:15into a format that the web server can understand,

5:18which then sends the information back

5:21to you in the form of an HTML or a JavaScript document.

5:25Did you realize that all of this was going on under the hood?

5:28Maybe you did, or maybe you didn't.

5:29But immediately, what I see here is at a minimum three

5:33servers that were going to have to run just

5:36to support the search functionality on the Amazon

5:39website.

5:40Now, in reality Amazon's going to have

5:41like hundreds of servers doing just the search functionality,

5:45because it's Amazon.

5:46It's globally known.

5:47It's got gajillions of transactions per second,

5:50and that's what's going on.

5:51But immediately, I see I'm going to have my Amazon web server,

5:54which just is the front end.

5:55I'm going to have an app tier that's

5:57responsible for search only, and then I'm

6:00going to have a database that it searches through.

6:02But then what happens when I want

6:04to add a product to my cart?

6:06I'm going to click Add to Cart on the web tier, which

6:09is going to trigger a new app tier,

6:11maybe for the cart section.

6:13And then a new database maintains what is in my cart.

6:18So that way if I leave the website and come back later,

6:21all of my information is stored in the database,

6:24and it can be pulled out of the database

6:26and sent back to the website to show you

6:28what all is in my cart.

6:30Then it's time for me to purchase my product.

6:33So guess what.

6:33I click the Buy Now button.

6:35Let's hide Knox for a second.

6:36So you click the Buy button, and then what happens?

6:38Now, it's time to actually process the payment

6:41and schedule this item, these patch cables that I

6:45want for delivery.

6:46So we're going to have a big application

6:49tier, which is going to collect some payment information.

6:52But very critical to understand, it's

6:53not going to store that information anywhere.

6:56Why is that?

6:57We're going to talk about that when we get to data security,

7:00and we start talking about regulations.

7:02It's a big thing.

7:03But this is going to be the purchasing app.

7:06It takes the credit card information,

7:07then immediately punts it to an outside application,

7:11a different application.

7:13This is going to be something like PayPal or Stripe.

7:16That's another big payment processor.

7:19And these organizations are specifically

7:21built to do nothing but handle the actual charging of credit

7:25cards and debit cards, or the drafting of bank accounts,

7:28or handling payment processes.

7:31Once that card has been successfully charged,

7:33it communicates back to the application.

7:36And this application then says, "Cool.

7:38I've got a successful payment, and now I

7:40need to send this information over

7:42towards another application," which

7:44is going to be my logistics, my supply chain.

7:48So this is going to handle finding out

7:50where this device lives among all of the warehouses, all

7:54of these patch cables.

7:55Where do we have them actually stored as inventory,

7:58and which location is closest to me for shipping.

8:02And then it goes through the process of actually scheduling

8:04that application, or that--

8:07my actual patch cables here out for delivery.

8:10See how I could probably go on, and on, and on, and on, and on,

8:13and on about all of the different moving parts

8:16to just one website, amazon.com?

8:19Now, extrapolate that towards all of your favorite websites.

8:22Google is going to work the exact same way.

8:24Gmail, your Gmail web app is going to work the same way.

8:27Newegg, where we all buy our computer parts from,

8:30is going to work the same way.

8:31Apple, every time we want to purchase a laptop,

8:34or put a laptop within our shopping cart,

8:37it's going to work the exact same way, right?

8:39You know, or our air buds, or all of the cool things

8:42that we like to purchase from Apple, because, I mean,

8:44I'm an Apple fan, of course.

8:45So the idea here is it's all the exact same thing

8:48that we've got here.

8:49This is a major application that we're talking

8:51about at the end of the day.

8:53And our infrastructure, us as a systems administrator

8:56and a systems engineer, it's more than just

8:58supporting a web server these days.

9:01Now we're going to have all of these additional tiers

9:03of application, all of these pieces

9:06communicate together through the usage of something called APIs.

9:12Now, very simply, what is an API?

9:14When we as a user want to interact with Amazon's website,

9:18we use the HTTP protocol.

9:21The HTTP protocol can specifically

9:23say, hey, this is coming from a web browser,

9:26and we are requesting some HTML, or JavaScript documents, or CSS

9:30documents, or whatever else it is to support it.

9:33And that's what gets sent back to my web browser, which

9:36then renders a website.

9:37However, on these applications over here,

9:39the app tier servers can also run HTTP endpoints.

9:44But when they communicate to each other,

9:47they're not requesting HTML documents.

9:49Instead, what they're doing is they're

9:51using the HTTP protocol to transmit raw data.

9:55Using the HTTP protocol, we can send data,

9:59or we can receive data.

10:00And this is all using APIs.

10:03So we may end up in installing web servers

10:06on all of these tiers, but never actually running a website.

10:10Instead, we'll enable an endpoint of our HTTP server

10:14so that internally all of these applications

10:17can speak to each other using our HTTP endpoints.

10:21But again, instead of transmitting HTML documents

10:24back and forth, we just transmit data back and forth.

10:27Now, if you're a real go-getter, you

10:29may be wondering, what does that data really look like?

10:31And I encourage you to look up something called JSON.

10:34This is the actual structure of the data.

10:36And it's based off of JavaScript objects.

10:39JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation.

10:42So when the Amazon web front end is going to communicate down

10:45to the app tiers, it's actually sending

10:47JSON-structured payloads to the HTTP endpoints.

10:51And those applications know how to receive that data.

10:54And it knows exactly what action it should take with that data.

10:57So this is how modern web applications really work today.

11:00What you should now think about is, again,

11:02all about redundancy.

11:04Wherever you see one server here written on the screen,

11:07realistically, there's going to be at least two servers

11:10deployed in production.

11:11So that way, if one goes down, the other one

11:13can step in and fulfill the duties.

11:16So this has been understanding how modern apps work.

11:18I hope this has been informative for you,

11:20and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:06So in the previous video, we started

0:07to introduce the concepts about how modern application works.

0:11And we talked about how there would

0:12be a middleware tier, a tier that

0:15sits in between the data and the front end that handles all

0:18of the processing, all of the actions

0:21that the application does.

0:23Many people would argue that the front end is

0:24the most important, or the database here

0:26is the most important.

0:27I would actually argue that the middleware tier is the most

0:30important because it's the glue that ties everything together.

0:34This is where the actual application itself lives.

0:38And that's why it's called the app server.

0:40So in this video, we're going to do is talk a little bit more

0:41about what the app server really brings to the table

0:44and why we end up deploying them all over the place in today's

0:47infrastructures.

0:48I'll see you there.

0:49Now, one of the servers that feels

0:50the most fuzzy of all as systems administrators or systems

0:54engineers dive into supporting servers

0:57is the application tier server.

0:59And the real reason for that is there's not something

1:02that we can really touch and administer in this case.

1:05This is really just a landing zone for a developer's code.

1:10So let's talk about how this is going to work first of all.

1:12For the most part, we deploy this server.

1:15This is going to be our application-tier server.

1:18And the application-tier server is

1:20to sit in between other layers of our application.

1:24We talked about this in the last video, how on one side,

1:28there could be a database.

1:29And on the other side, there could be a web server.

1:33So the web server is what people are going to interact with.

1:37And somehow or other, people are going to generate or interact

1:41with data.

1:42That's what the database is all about.

1:44So maybe they're typing in their name, their first name,

1:47their last name, their address, and then they click Save.

1:49And the idea is the web server now has to take that data

1:52and get it into the database.

1:53Or maybe they click purchase, and now that purchase

1:57needs to go through, and records of their purchases

1:59need to be saved.

2:01The application tier is what handles all of that.

2:05But the really funny thing about the application tier

2:08is that we as a systems administrator

2:10are very hands off with the application tier.

2:13However, this is one of the devices that

2:16gets clobbered the most because, guess

2:18what, it's sitting in the middle of the application.

2:20Both of these servers here, server one and database server,

2:24are both trying to interact with the app server

2:27at the same time.

2:28So the app server's typically going to have a bigger load.

2:31Now, for the most part, how does the app server really, really

2:35work at the end of the day if we're not really

2:37running a website on it?

2:38Well, we are going to install web service roles.

2:42So, again, this may be something like Apache or Nginx

2:48in the Linux world.

2:49Or maybe if we're running Python,

2:51we may use something like Flask or Django.

2:55Or maybe if we're using a Windows environment,

2:58which is built on top of a framework called .NET,

3:01we may use something like IIS.

3:04The point is is that we, as the administrator,

3:07are going to be responsible for, first of all,

3:09deploying the server and then installing these roles

3:13or these applications into it.

3:15And then from there, we walk away.

3:17It's up to the software developer

3:19at that point to deploy their code

3:21to Apache or Nginx or Flask.

3:24And we just got to make sure that we have enabled

3:26the right ports in the firewall or the right network

3:28connectivity at the same time.

3:30So the application tier is kind of a funny one

3:34because it's not one that we really

3:36interact with very often.

3:38Now, when devs are creating the code that's

3:41going to run on the application tier,

3:44again, it really depends on what framework

3:46or what languages they want to write on.

3:48One of the most common languages that

3:50can be written for an application tier is Java.

3:53And as a systems administrator, when somebody says, hey,

3:56I want to run a new app server.

3:58It's going to run some Java code.

4:00That means we need to make sure we're

4:01installing the OpenJDK, which is the Java Developer Kits.

4:07We've got to make sure we have that

4:09installed for the developers so that when

4:10they deploy their code, it can actually run the Java code.

4:13Python is another very popular programming language

4:16that can run web servers very easily.

4:19This includes things like Flask and, again, Django.

4:23So we, as a systems administrator or a systems

4:26engineer, may have to install Python on the operating system.

4:31Windows does not ship with Python installed

4:34in it by default. Linux devices and macOS devices do however

4:38install with Python installed by default,

4:40but you may want to check which version is installed.

4:43So if you're running a Windows-based environment,

4:45you'll have to install Python before you

4:47can install Flask or Django.

4:49Or, alternatively, if you're running

4:50a Linux-based environment, which is very popular,

4:53you may just install Flask or Django directly.

4:56Then, lastly, of course, we talked about this .NET.

4:58When we have a Windows-based environment,

5:01and we're running Windows Server,

5:02.NET comes installed by default. However, versions are very,

5:08very important in all software programming languages.

5:11If .NET 3 ships on Windows servers,

5:15but my developers are trying to develop in .NET 3.2,

5:20guess what.

5:203.2 supports more features and programming words and things

5:25like that.

5:25That's a very high-level term there.

5:27Don't say that around developers.

5:28But it supports different code features in 3.2 than 3

5:32can support.

5:33So they may write code and try to deploy it,

5:35and that will all fail because it doesn't have the latest

5:38version of .NET installed.

5:40So our role as a systems administrator,

5:42when we're interacting with an application tier,

5:45is we do have to know what kind of application

5:48is going to run on it.

5:49Is it going to be a web server, even though we're not deploying

5:52websites, but we still need to enable the ability

5:54to digest data as it comes in?

5:57Then, beyond that, what programming language are

6:00these developers wanting to use so that we

6:02can prep their development environment

6:04and get all of the applications installed?

6:06The big deal here is we tend to want to avoid delegating

6:11too much power to developers.

6:13The idea here is we don't want the developers to be

6:15able to install whatever software they want into all

6:18of our applications, because then there can be security

6:21risks or the actual programming code or installations

6:25themselves can be sprawled and differ from one app server

6:28to the next.

6:29And it becomes very messy when we do that.

6:31So this is understanding the role of app servers

6:34and what we as systems engineers or administrators

6:36have to do to support them.

6:37I hope this has been informative for you,

6:39and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:06Now, I actually began my technical career working

0:09with data as a data interpreter, a data analyst,

0:13where I visualize data that oftentimes

0:15came from a database.

0:17That spawned me into working with even more and more

0:20database technologies, like SQL servers,

0:23until I actually became a SQL developer, which spawned me

0:26into getting into networking and server roles after that.

0:29So databases in general kind of hit home for me.

0:33I feel like that's my cozy spot, since that's

0:35where I really began my career.

0:37So what we're going to do in this video

0:39is talk a little bit more about the roles

0:41and what a database server really brings to the table.

0:44We're also going to talk about job roles

0:46and who would be working with you when

0:47we talk about administering a database server.

0:50I'll see you there.

0:51Now, the last one that really throws

0:53systems administrators and engineers for a loop

0:55is the database server.

0:58And the reason why is because, quite frankly,

1:01they are big beasts in their own right

1:04to deploy and especially maintain and optimize.

1:07And what we as systems administrators

1:09and systems engineers end up doing

1:12is we rely heavily on the database administrator

1:16to deploy and maintain the server for us.

1:19They're the ones who are really trained

1:22to know how to install and configure and secure

1:26a database.

1:27Now, what is a database at the end of the day?

1:30It's just a gigantic collection of data.

1:33If you were to actually explore a database, what

1:36it would look like to you is just a set of Excel files.

1:40It looks like just like an Excel file,

1:42where you've got columns at the top and then rows of data

1:45going down.

1:45That's exactly what is contained in a database.

1:47So it's just dozens and dozens and dozens of all

1:50of these different Excel files.

1:52But there's one thing that makes them different.

1:54Pretend that I have an Excel file here.

1:56I'm just going to put X here.

1:58And I have a separate Excel file here.

2:00Now, I want you to consider all of the data about you

2:05as a person.

2:07You've got a name, you've got an address, you've got an age,

2:10you've got an eye color, you've got a hair color

2:13or maybe you don't have hair at all.

2:14Maybe you have a beard or maybe you don't have a beard.

2:17You're so tall.

2:18You've got X amount of education under your belt.

2:21You drive a car or maybe you don't drive a car.

2:23Maybe you ride a bike.

2:24There's just so much information about you

2:28as a person that would not be physically possible to store it

2:33in one Excel file.

2:34So what we do is we end up giving you

2:37an ID number like Knox.

2:40And we identify, in one of these quote-unquote "Excel

2:44files," the names of all of the people and the ID numbers

2:49within that Excel file.

2:51Then in a separate Excel file, we'll

2:53write the same ID number again, but instead

2:56of identifying the name, maybe we'll identify the address.

3:00I'm in Louisiana.

3:03And then, maybe in a separate Excel file,

3:06we'll identify the eye color, which in my case

3:08is kind of like bluish gray.

3:10Do you see what we're doing here?

3:11We use what's called an ID--

3:14or really, in database terms, they call this a primary key--

3:17that we can use to link all of the data that's

3:20spread out together.

3:22That way we can collect a tremendous amount of data,

3:25but we never actually lose our ability

3:28to keep track of who it is that we're really talking

3:30about at the end of the day because they have one

3:32identifier that's in common.

3:33Now, that's what a database does.

3:36And spreading all of this data out optimizes,

3:40first of all, how the data is stored on disk,

3:42and second of all, how quickly we can retrieve it

3:46because we can now specify, I want this exact subset

3:48of data from this one file.

3:52I've been calling this Excel files,

3:54in database terms these are actually

3:55called tables, tables of data.

3:57So we can specify what tables we want to pull data out of,

4:01we can get very specific to where we only pull out the data

4:03that we actually need.

4:05So this is all going to live on our server.

4:09Now, begs the question-- you may have

4:10heard about these different kinds of databases,

4:12but we'll go ahead and list them out now.

4:14Probably the most widely deployed,

4:17paid-for database server is the Oracle SQL servers.

4:22That stands for Structured Query Language.

4:24That is the language that we use to interact with databases.

4:27Oracle landed some big government contracts early on.

4:31Now Oracle's pretty much everywhere

4:33and they're a dominant force when it comes to databases.

4:36But right on their heels is Microsoft SQL Server.

4:40And that's also a paid solution.

4:43Then there's also free solutions like MySQL or PostgreSQL

4:49is what this was called.

4:50So I'll just group these together and say free,

4:52and I'll group these together and say paid.

4:54You won't need to know these for the exam,

4:56but you will need to know these for the real world.

4:58And it kind of begs the question--

4:59like you look at these and it feels intimidating like,

5:02am I deploying a server with the SQL server operating systems

5:05on it?

5:06No, it's just an app.

5:08It's just an app that you install on your basic Windows

5:11server or your Linux machine.

5:13That's it.

5:14So when I install, when I deploy a new server here,

5:17I may install Windows Server 2019 on it

5:20or I may install Ubuntu Linux server--

5:23just the basic operating system that I've always installed.

5:26But instead of adding a new role to it,

5:28I'll actually have to provide an installer for Microsoft SQL

5:32Server.

5:33Now, I'll also go ahead and say this now.

5:35There are free versions of Microsoft SQL Server.

5:38They call it SQL Server Express.

5:40You could download it, install it right now in your desktop.

5:42It will consume a lot of RAM and CPU cycles

5:46if that's what you want to do, but this is a great way

5:48to learn about how databases really work.

5:50Again, the database administrator's job

5:53is to be the one who deploys, configures,

5:56and secures the actual database software itself.

6:00And I'm going to tell you right now,

6:02they're going to be very skilled and talented

6:04and speak your language.

6:05The DBA, even though they know SQL

6:08and can write a whole bunch of code,

6:10they're really more in line with systems administrators

6:14and systems engineering.

6:15Because their role, primarily, is to add users and security

6:19permissions into the database that align very closely

6:23to our active directory servers, how we log into our networks.

6:26And beyond that, they're very focused on optimizing

6:30the database software itself by employing the hardware.

6:34They know how to do disk subsystems.

6:37They know how to optimize read and writes to the disks.

6:40They know how to optimize how RAM is allocated

6:42for the SQL server process.

6:44So this has been understanding what database servers are

6:47and where they fit in to our overall role about what servers

6:51do, what are the different roles that different servers can

6:54facilitate in our environment.

6:55Now, we've seen some of the core server roles,

6:58and now we have an idea of all of the different kinds

7:01of servers that can be deployed.

7:02I want to stress this right now though.

7:04There are literally hundreds of different kinds of servers

7:08out there that all do something unique and fascinating.

7:11We've only just covered a few of the basic categories

7:14of servers, but they're the really big ones

7:16that you're going to encounter in the real world.

7:18So this has been understanding what the servers are,

7:20what the foundations are, and what servers really do.

7:23I hope this has been informative for you,

7:24and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:06So now we've wrapped our head around what a server is.

0:09It is something that serves our clients.

0:12And we've seen that a server can wear many different hats.

0:15It can install many different roles

0:17and serve many different purposes in an environment.

0:21Lots of times, we will deploy a server to fill just one role,

0:26and then we'll deploy a separate server

0:28to serve a completely separate role.

0:30This is what today's modern infrastructure really

0:32looks like as we have lots of servers deployed

0:35all over the place that serve many different specialized

0:39roles.

0:40We've lowered our footprint a little bit

0:42when we introduce something like virtualization

0:44into the mix, which we're not there yet.

0:46We're not talking about virtualization just yet.

0:48Just know, for right now, that it's a very common practice

0:51to have a server fill one specific role and then

0:55a separate server serve the completely separate roles,

0:57and now we understand why so many different servers exist.

1:00I hope this has been informative for you,

1:02and I'd like to thank you for viewing.