Server Roles in a Commerce Solution Deployment
This topic lists and describes the server roles used in various environments of an enterprise Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2 deployment.
Note
A deployment environment may not contain all the server roles described in the following table. The size of the deployment, the deployment topology model and the deployment environment itself (such as the production environment or the development environment) determine the server roles that are required.
Server role |
Environment |
Description |
|---|---|---|
BizTalk Server |
Integration/test Production |
Supports Commerce Server 2009 R2 BizTalk Server adapters for line-of-business (LOB) and business-to-business trading partner integration. BizTalk Server facilitates multichannel integration scenarios with other internal systems, other retail sales channels, and external trading partners. It supports the exchange of data with the Catalog, Inventory, Orders, and Profiles Systems. |
Business Management server |
Integration/test Staging |
Runs the Web services that the Business Management Tools access. At a minimum, this server role requires the Commerce Foundation Components installed, which includes the Commerce Core Systems and the Web services needed to run the Desktop Business Tools server. |
Commerce Server single server |
Development/ Test |
Supports evaluation and pre-production tasks. Runs all Commerce Server 2009 R2 software and SQL Server databases on a single server. Can also be used for development. |
Data Warehouse and analysis server |
Production |
Supports data mining from multiple information sources and analysis reporting services. This server combines an SQL Server database, an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database, and processes that Commerce Server 2009 R2 uses to import and maintain data. Not supported in a three-tier commerce deployment. |
Desktop Business Tools client |
Internal corporate intranet |
Enables the business users in an organization to access the Commerce Server 2009 R2 Desktop Business Tools and manage the product catalogs, marketing campaigns, site terms, and more for each Commerce Server 2009 R2 site. These applications access the Web services that run on the Business Management server. Desktop Business Tools clients can point to the Business Management server that runs in the integration/test, staging environment. |
Domain controller |
Integration/test Production |
Runs the Active Directory service and Authorization Manager to handle security for all servers and devices on a network. Also handles permissions and logon authentication for users. |
Foundation server |
Production/ Integration/test Staging |
In a three-tier commerce deployment, runs the Commerce Foundation as a service which receives requests from the presentation servers to retrieve and return commerce data from the data tier. |
SQL Server database server |
Integration/test Staging Production |
Stores Commerce Server 2009 R2 data and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 data (in SharePoint 2010 commerce deployment). |
Staging server |
Data/staging |
Runs the Commerce Server Staging (CSS) service. CSS lets you synchronize multiple servers in a Web farm, or copy Web site content and data between separate environments. By using CSS, you can update Web content and business data from a source server to one or more destination servers. CSS is available only with Commerce Server 2009 R2 Enterprise Edition. In a large deployment, you deploy the staging server in the data/staging environment. It should be set up to mirror the production Business Management server. |
Web/Presentation server |
Production/test |
The Web server role hosts the Internet Information Services (IIS) which is used to execute Commerce applications. The Web/Presentation server also hosts a WCF Routing Service that provides a security boundary between rich Internet applications (RIAs), such as Silverlight-based business management applications that run in the browser, and the Commerce Foundation. You typically deploy Commerce Server Web servers in a load-balanced Web farm (ASP.NET or SharePoint 2010 deployment). In a two-tier deployment, the Web server hosts the Commerce Foundation and the Commerce runtime. In a three-tier commerce deployment, the Web server does not host the Commerce Foundation or the Commerce runtime. Servers in the presentation tier act as clients of the , which they access via service calls to the Foundation server. |