RE: I am in a Holy War about webserving from a System i

We've been running web-based report distribution since we had a Model
620 back in 1998. Spool files are auto-converted to the appropriate
formats (printer formatted, raw text, PDF) by a 3rd party application.
The files are then moved to an IFS directory (each user has their own
dir). When the user goes to look at their report list a net.data macro
spawns a CL that eventually generates a directory listing database that
is SQLed to read and deliver a formatted page. The code is a mix of
HTTP with net.data, RPG, and CL.

Response time for the page depends on how many reports the user has but
in general is 2-4 seconds. The remaining pages are more or less static
and are sub-second.

I've been considering re-writing it from the ground up using more modern
tools - net.data doesn't see many enhancements nowadays - but it works
and works fast enough that there are rarely any complaints.

This service started on the CERN/Classic HTTP server, was migrated to
Apache, had SSL added, and has been tweaked over the years, but it has
always been on the AS/400 or iSeries (no System i hardware just yet).
The IFS directories are part of our MIMIX setup & are replicated to our
BC/DR system. The latest tweak was the addition of a 2058 Crypto Card
to offload SSL from the main CPUs. Not that SSL was a lot of overhead;
we had bought the card for another purpose but it wasn't being used.
The 2058 was hot-installed, configured, & activated. No downtime. Not
even a web server restart needed.