What Are Servers, Clients, and Appliances?

Server 

A system that provides services to other systems in its network. There are file servers, boot servers, web servers, database servers, license servers, print servers, installation servers, appliance servers, and even servers for particular applications. This chapter uses the term server to mean a system that provides boot services and file systems for other systems on the network. 

Client 

A system that uses remote services from a server. Some clients have limited disk storage capacity, or perhaps none at all, and they have to rely on remote file systems from a server to function. Diskless systems, AutoClient systems, and appliance systems are examples of this type of client. 

Other clients might use remote services (such as installation software) from a server, but they don't rely on a server to function. A standalone system, which has its own hard disk containing the root (/), /usr, and /export/home file systems and swap space, is a good example of this type of client.

Sun Cobalt Server Appliance 

The Sun Cobalt server appliance provides an integrated set of pre-configured Internet services. Users of the server appliance just need a web browser and an IP address. Administration on the servers is centralized and the appliance users require no client administration. For more information, see http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances.

Appliance 

A network appliance such as the Sun Ray appliance provides access to applications and the Solaris environment. An appliance gives you centralized server administration and no client administration or upgrades. Sun Ray appliances also provide hot desking, which is the ability to instantly access your computing session from any appliance in the server group, exactly where you left off. For more information, see http://www.sun.com/products/sunray.