Server

About
A dedicated computer in a network which provides files and services that are used by the other computers. A server provides accesses and information to clients and sometimes has its own and/or mulitple IP address.

Examples are:
 * Personal computers with very large amounts of RAM that can be configured to act as a service (or dedicated server)

Some characteristics are:


 * can be a physcal node or software program
 * installed on a host
 * provides specific services to clients
 * serves only clients

There are many different tyoes of servers to include but not limited to:
 * Email
 * HTTP
 * Archive or historian
 * Database-provide various data storage and retrieval services to the control system applications
 * Data acquisition-collects information from front-end field devices (i.e. Human machine interfaces) and provides a conduit for data exchange between field operations and operator control
 * Application-support command and control functions for automated systems. They receive process data and data from other sources and run programs to optimize the process. The results are either provided to the operator through the HMI to take action or directly downloaded for automated operations.
 * Configuration- used to configure, store, assess, and populate applications data to other computers on the control system network that are associated with the vendor control system applications. These servers allow remote operations, configuration, or information exchanges to improve productivity.