title: 3-tier architecture v. 3-server architecture
body: <p>I'm building a traditional .NET MVC site, so I've got a natural 3-tier software architecture setup (presentation in the form of Views, business layer in the controller, and data layer in the models and data access layer).</p>
  
  <p>When I've deployed such sites, it usually goes either on one server (where the web site and db live), or two servers (a web server and a separate db server).</p>
  
  <p>How does one go about a 3-server architecture (WEB, APP, and DB)?  Would the web server just have the presentation (e.g. the physical View/aspx pages), the app server would hold the config file and bin folder, and the db server would remain as is?</p>
  
  <p>My question is essentially, can you simply move the /bin and all app logic onto a separate server from the presentation views? If so, how do you configure the servers to know where to look?  If there's a good primer somewhere or someone can give me the lowdown, I'd be forever indebted.</p>