Manual: Internals-Server Software

What Server Software is in use on a RidgeStar Interactive Site?

When RidgeStar first started creating Interactive Sites, we used the then current Windows/NT, IIS, ASP, and Access software products. These products worked fine for us in the initial stages, permitting us to develop and validate main concepts.

In the fourth quarter of 2002, we completed a fairly extensive search to locate the host software for the "next generation" of the sites to improve performance, reliability, and availability. As a result of this search and evaluation, we have standardized on the following key Open Source software products for all future development:

RedHat Linux: RedHat's popular Open Source operating system provides the stability and performance characteristics necessary for running a 24/7 operational environment. All the production RidgeStar Linux Servers are scheduled for regular software updates for continual application of preventative maintenance, as deemed appropriate by RedHat and the RidgeStar Server maintenance team
Apache HTTP Server: Apache Foundation's Apache Web Server manages actual HTTP operations, thread management, SSL functionality, and related logging activities within Linux. Not only is Apache an excellent fit with Linux, but it's throughput characteristics are simply not matched by anything we investigated.
PHP Scripting Language: There are many languages available on the Linux/Apache platform that we might have used to implement the Interactive Site concepts. We exclusively use the PHP Scripting language for all Server side coding and would certainly recommend it to anyone looking towards interactive HTTP based applications
MySQL Database Processor: Finally, the "backend data storage" is directly supported through use of one of the most prevalent Open Source Database systems on the Internet, the Open Source MySQL product. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, all your database Tables will reside on a RidgeStar Server under control of the MySQL Daemon.

We did not start our search to settle completely on Open Source products. Rather, we simply concluded that they offered the best performance and stability on "non-mainframe" types of hardware. We are certainly fans of open source and have (at this time) no reservations about recommending it to others with similar business constraints and requirements.