Typical Network Situations

From a desktop perspective, a typical network configuration may contain some combination of these major components:

Displays—where the X server is running

Login/Session servers—where the desktop applications (Login Manager, Workspace Manager, and the like.) run

Application servers—where other applications run

File servers—where data used by applications is located

One of the most common network configurations involves systems accessing an application server. Figure 7–1 illustrates a workstation that uses an application server. The X server and desktop session are running on the workstation.

Figure 7–1 Application servers provide services to the desktop session

Networks also frequently use file servers to store large amounts of data. This data may be used by applications running on an application server, or by the desktop applications (for example, File Manager needs access to data files to display them in the File Manager window).

Figure 7–2 File servers provide data to application servers and session servers

X terminals run the X server and obtain desktop session services from another system.

Figure 7–3 X terminals get session services from a session server