Can Weblogic Server be used as a web server???

[gupta boddu]

Hi,
Many places I came across the sentences like
"your code should point to the HTTP Server instead of weblogic server"
Also I have read that
we can set up weblogic server as a web server.
If so, why do we need a separate web server when we use weblogic server?

If weblogic server can be used as a web server, what are the limitations?

[Marcos Maia]

you don�t need a web server if you have WebLogic server and theres no limitations about.
If you use WL as a web server and as a app server youre gonna have a performance gain since you wont need to do remote calls in your applications WL server handles this for you.

[gupta boddu]

Now I am confused!!
In one of my posts, I asked a similar question. It goes like this.
1. Can weblogic server act like a webserver?
Ans. yes, but is a big waste of resourses.
that was your reply. I didnt understand how it is a big waste of resources!! And here you have mentioned that it is a performance gain.
Please suggest me what is the best solution.
Should I integrate iplanet webserver with weblogic server?
Or should I replace iplanet web server with the weblogic server and move the application entirely to weblogic?

[Marcos Maia]

yes, but is a big waste of resourses
I wrote this about if youre going to use WL server only as a webserver and not as an app server, so its a big waste of resorses cause it is the best app server on the market and you could have web servers much cheaper than WL.
About your application I think you should move it all to WL server, cause youre gonna have better performance and WL server has a gread administrator console where you can control all your application connection pooling clustering etc...

[gupta boddu]

Thanks for your reply.
I got your point. I would like to know
1. How stable is weblogic server? Because in production, it should not crash or cause any delays. It is going to be a serious problem.
2. Good administrator console is no appeal. Is it possible to configure without using the console like modifying the config files.
3. How better weblogic server handles the cgi scripts and other web application requests?
4. How is the performance of it compared to Iplanet web server handling the web components (cgi, static html etc). Because the usage of our application will be 80% cgi and 20% EJB. In this case, is it better to use Iplanet web server+weblogic combination or use Weblogic alone?
I am sorry for asking too many questions.

[Tim Holloway]

WebLogic can serve html or it can be used in conjunction with Apache. WebLogic is a Java-based system, so it does Java best - as far as performance and reliability go, you pay a pretty price for WebLogic, you should expect good results -- certainly I've never heard complaints on that score.
I don't even know if WebLogic is supposed to be able to run CGI - it's not a feature they play up, being an Enterprise Java system, but since they can work alongside Apache, you can definitely keep the CGI at minimal cost.