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GlassFish vs nginx: What are the differences?
- Scalability: GlassFish is primarily designed for Java EE applications and offers extensive support for Java technologies, making it ideal for large enterprise applications requiring complex configurations. On the other hand, nginx is a lightweight web server and proxy server that excels in serving static content and handling a high volume of concurrent connections efficiently.
- Configuration: GlassFish typically requires more complex configuration due to its comprehensive support for Java EE components and applications, with various XML deployment descriptors and settings to manage. In contrast, nginx has a simple and intuitive configuration syntax that is easy to understand and manage, allowing for quick setup and deployment of web servers with minimal overhead.
- Resource Usage: GlassFish is known for its higher resource utilization, especially in memory consumption, as it runs on top of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which can be more resource-intensive. nginx, being a lightweight server, is optimized for low resource usage and can efficiently handle a large number of concurrent connections with minimal memory footprint.
- Load Balancing: GlassFish provides built-in support for load balancing and clustering features, allowing for the distribution of incoming traffic across multiple server instances for improved performance and fault tolerance. nginx also offers load balancing capabilities through various load-balancing algorithms, making it well-suited for distributing traffic among backend servers in a scalable and efficient manner.
- SSL/TLS Termination: nginx is commonly used as a reverse proxy server for SSL/TLS termination, offloading the encryption and decryption process from the backend servers to improve performance and security. GlassFish also supports SSL/TLS encryption for secure communication but may require additional configuration and setup to achieve similar levels of SSL termination functionality.
- Community and Support: nginx has a large and active open-source community with extensive documentation, plugins, and community support available, making it easy to find resources and solutions for common issues. GlassFish, while also supported by a community of Java developers, may have less available resources and community support compared to the widespread usage and support for nginx.
In Summary, GlassFish and nginx differ in scalability for enterprise applications, configuration complexity, resource usage efficiency, load balancing capabilities, SSL termination features, and community support and resources.
I am diving into web development, both front and back end. I feel comfortable with administration, scripting and moderate coding in bash, Python and C++, but I am also a Windows fan (i love inner conflict). What are the votes on web servers? IIS is expensive and restrictive (has Windows adoption of open source changed this?) Apache has the history but seems to be at the root of most of my Infosec issues, and I know nothing about nginx (is it too new to rely on?). And no, I don't know what I want to do on the web explicitly, but hosting and data storage (both cloud and tape) are possibilities. Ready, aim fire!
I would pick nginx over both IIS and Apace HTTP Server any day. Combine it with docker, and as you grow maybe even traefik, and you'll have a really flexible solution for serving http content where you can take sites and projects up and down without effort, easily move it between systems and dont have to handle any dependencies on your actual local machine.
From a StackShare Community member: "We are a LAMP shop currently focused on improving web performance for our customers. We have made many front-end optimizations and now we are considering replacing Apache with nginx. I was wondering if others saw a noticeable performance gain or any other benefits by switching."
I use nginx because it is very light weight. Where Apache tries to include everything in the web server, nginx opts to have external programs/facilities take care of that so the web server can focus on efficiently serving web pages. While this can seem inefficient, it limits the number of new bugs found in the web server, which is the element that faces the client most directly.
I use nginx because its more flexible and easy to configure
I use Apache HTTP Server because it's intuitive, comprehensive, well-documented, and just works
Pros of GlassFish
Pros of NGINX
- High-performance http server1.5K
- Performance894
- Easy to configure730
- Open source607
- Load balancer530
- Free289
- Scalability288
- Web server226
- Simplicity175
- Easy setup136
- Content caching30
- Web Accelerator21
- Capability15
- Fast14
- High-latency12
- Predictability12
- Reverse Proxy8
- Supports http/27
- The best of them7
- Great Community5
- Lots of Modules5
- Enterprise version5
- High perfomance proxy server4
- Embedded Lua scripting3
- Streaming media delivery3
- Streaming media3
- Reversy Proxy3
- Blash2
- GRPC-Web2
- Lightweight2
- Fast and easy to set up2
- Slim2
- saltstack2
- Virtual hosting1
- Narrow focus. Easy to configure. Fast1
- Along with Redis Cache its the Most superior1
- Ingress controller1
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Cons of GlassFish
Cons of NGINX
- Advanced features require subscription10