What is the difference between IBM HTTP Server vs Wepsphere Application Server?

Question

I would like to know the difference between IBM HTTP Server and Wepsphere Application Server. Also i am planning to use WAS. Do i still need the IBM HTTP Server?

Answer 1

From here:-

IBM HTTP Server

IBM® HTTP Server is a full-featured web server that is included with other products such as IBM WebSphere® Application Server at no charge. You can use this web server for projects that do not warrant the expense of a priced and supported HTTP server. The IBM HTTP Server is based on the Apache HTTP Server and provides a rich set of Apache features in addition to IBM enhancements.

From here:-

Wepsphere Application Server

IBM® WebSphere® Application Server offers options for a faster, more flexible Java application server runtime environment with enhanced reliability and resiliency. It supports single server environments and medium-sized configurations, as well as dynamic web applications requiring web tier clustering over multiple application server instances.

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Do i still need the IBM HTTP Server?

Wiki has the answer for it:-

It works with a number of Web servers including Apache HTTP Server, Netscape Enterprise Server, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), IBM HTTP Server for i5/OS, IBM HTTP Server for z/OS, and IBM HTTP Server for AIX/Linux/Microsoft Windows/Solaris. It uses port 9060 for connection as the default administration port and port 9080 as the default website publication port. In case you install more WebSphere instances these values will be changed.

Answer 2

A http server is used for routing web requests to a WAS in a typical enterprise scenario. If you are building small apps, and do not need ejbs, just use the http server. If you need ejbs, just use WAS. However, if you need functionality like routing requests to WAS because you do not want the user to hit the WAS directly for security reasons, then use HTTP in front of WAS.