in-kernel web server
An in-kernel web server is an unlimited HTTP server that runs in kernel space or equivalent. It is also known as "accelerator".
Benefits
- Performance: the path taken by data from a source device (i.e. a disk) to a destination device (i.e. a NIC). Proper asynchronous zero-copy interfaces would make this available from user-space.
- Scalability: with respect to number of simultaneous clients. Event notification of comparable scalability seems unlikely in user-space{{ref|1|1}}.
Drawbacks
- Security: Kernel processes run with unlimited privileges.
- Portability. Every kernel needs a specific implementation route.
- Reliability. Failure in the webserver may crash the OS.
Implementations
See also
References
- {{note|1|1}}[http://www.citi.umich.edu/techreports/reports/citi-tr-00-4.pdf CITI_TR_00-4]
- [http://usenix.org/events/usenix01/full_papers/joubert/joubert.pdf High-Performance Memory-Based Web Servers: Kernel and User-Space Performance. Philippe Joubert, Robert B. King, Rich Neves, Mark Russinovich, John M. Tracey. IBM. T. J. Watson Research Center]