Distributed Installation Vs In-Process Installation
The standard installation is the "In-Process Installation". By default, AWE can be installed in a shared environment where multiple instances of the software can run from the same server. In contrast, AWE can also be configured for what is called a "Distributed Installation". This means the different services can be run on multiple machines with multiple client facing web servers.
Distributed Installation
In a Distributed environment, services can be run on multiple machines with multiple client facing web servers. Communication between services is handled via Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
In Enterprise Services mode, the BLL and DAL execute within a Windows Service which includes the Scheduler. There is an additional Windows Service for Notifications since there is such a clear demarcation between other BLL services, and Notification fulfillment. Additionally, Notification can be setup to be run on a more appropriate server, perhaps closer to, or even on, an outgoing mail server if you so choose. MVC still executes within the IIS worker process context. MVC communicates with the BLL via client classes with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service remoting to the BLL/DAL Windows Services. This mode is most useful in environments which require scalability. An example of this would be a web farm of more than one web server serving the presentation layer, an application server serving the Windows Services for BLL/DAL and Notification (or optionally, the Notification service could run on a third server to provide Notification fulfillment).
In-Process Installation (Standard Installation)
By default, AWE can be installed in a shared environment; multiple instances of AWE can run on the same web server; where components run in-process and each installation is partitioned from all others.
In this mode, the BLL and the DAL execute within the IIS worker process context which includes the Scheduler and Notifier, in addition to the front-end MVC site. MVC communicates with the BLL via client classes with In-Process access to the BLL Services. The BLL communicates with the DAL In-Process. This is most useful in environments where the installation needs to be kept simple, or where multiple AuctionWorx sites could be running on the same IIS webserver.
