A Commerce Server application is a logical representation of an application in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS); it appears in both the Commerce Server Manager and IIS console trees. In the IIS console tree, an application is either at the root directory level of the Web site or at a subdirectory level of the Web site. Web services do not count as Commerce Server applications for license purposes.
A Commerce Server site includes a collection of site resources and ASP.NET-based applications that use these resources through the Commerce Server object model. With a Commerce Server site, you can administer the applications in the site as a group. Note that a Commerce Server site does not map to the concept of a Web site in IIS.
A Commerce Server resource is an entity that provides functionality to the applications in a Commerce Server site and that contains properties that you can configure through the Commerce Server Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Resources are either site resources or global resources. You can share global resources across Commerce Server sites. You cannot share site resources across Commerce Server sites. The Data Warehouse resource is an example of a global resource, whereas the Product Catalog resource is an example of a site resource.
A Commerce Server deployment includes one or more physical installations of Commerce Server 2007 directed to or sharing a single Commerce Server 2007 Administration database, the MSCS_Admin database. All Commerce Server sites that share a common MSCS_Admin database make up a single Commerce Server deployment.
In Commerce Server, a Web server is a computer on which IIS version 6.0 is installed. The Web server contains the virtual directories, files, and subfolders for a Commerce site. A Commerce Server deployment can have multiple Web servers that together form a Web farm.
A Web site is an IIS Web site running on a specific TCP port number. Examples are "Default Web Site" or "Administration Web site". By default, you install these sites with IIS 6.0.