[Info-vax] Using VMS for a web server

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <ml4q18$o1k$1 at news.albasani.net>,
	Jan-Erik Soderholm <jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> writes:
> johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk skrev den 2015-06-08 21:06:
>> On Monday, 8 June 2015 19:40:59 UTC+1, Jan-Erik Soderholm  wrote:
>>> David Froble skrev den 2015-06-08 19:21:
>>>> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Exactly.  I would never run a webserver on a machine that was intended
>>>>> to do the data processing for the business.
>>>>
>>>> It would depend, but I'd usually agree with this.
>>>
>>> David, how many web servers have *you* setup and managed?
>>> On VMS or on any platform?
>>>
>>> There isn't anything magic with a web server, it is just
>>> another application out there. You can use it and you can
>>> missuse it as much as you like. Just as any application
>>
>> It's not really to do with whether Dave's run a webserver...
> 
> Dave's "I'll never touch *that*" and "don't run *that* here" attitude
> has very much to do with inexperience within the actual area.
> 
> I'have been running web servers on VMS since our MicroVAX 3100/90
> was the factory main system with great success. And I have no
> problem putting a web server on any "modern" VMS system today.
> 
> The usual reaction is, "Oh, can you do *that* with *that* system?".
> 
> Note, I have no problem that other web service things are run
> on other servers where that specific web application runs best.
> (And that is more or less everything else around the web that
> doesn't have any connection to our VMS applications or data.)
> 
> It is always a matter of using the right tool from the right toolbox.
> Sometimes the toolbox as a sign saying "VMS", sometimes the toolbox
> has some other sign...
> 
> But saying, "oh, I'd never use *that* tool from *my* VMS toolbox",
> is simply silly.
> 

Well, I thought the debate was actually about world facing web servers.
I have single task webservers running on devices.  SWAT on a SAMBA box.
Any Cisco box (although I, personally, don't use them because they
handcuff the administrator in a fashion I consider unacceptable.)

Our world facing department web server is on a VM and that webserver is
all it runs.  If it needs to access a database it will find it on the
machine that handles our databases (two of them, one for development and
another for production.  Yes, there is "production" even in academia.)
A number of other specific tasks are single applications on standalone
boxes (VM's, actually).  That to is a part of "DiD", Defense in Depth.
Compromising a single box should not hand the attacker the keys to the
entire enterprise.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>