IIS 7

IIS 7 (Internet Information Service ) is the latest Web server release from Microsoft,

it comes with Windows 2008.

IIS 7 Manager has iconized management interface so it is easy to look for all option

available also there is option to search site from the entire list of sites created for

configuration. IIS7 has a completely modular setup design which enables absolute

control over the footprint of the web server, IIS7 Setup includes more than 40 installable

features

In addition to Modularity we have ASP.NET Integration Architecture Enhancements on IIS7

While IIS 7 provides the improved ASP.NET integration by default,: IIS7 supports both the

new and the old ASP.NET integration modes that can be used side by side on the same

server.

This article discusses the improvements introduced by the new ASP.NET integration mode,

the architecture of the two modes, and describes how to select and configure the integration

modes for ASP.NET applications. Better ASP.NET integration in IIS7 both enhances existing

applications, and allows new applications to take advantage of ASP.NET features in new ways

1) ASP.NET services can be used for all content types

In the past, ASP.NET functionality such as Forms Authentication,Roles, Url Authorization,

and Output Caching were only available to ASP.NET content types (ASPX pages, for example)

Static files,ASP pages, and other content types could not benefit from these services.

In IIS 7, all ASP.NET services can be provided uniformly to all content. For example, you can

protect all of your web content, including images and asp pages, with your existing ASP.NET 2.0

access control solution built on ASP.NET Forms Authentication,

Membership and Login controls.

2) Fully extend IIS with ASP.NET. Previous versions of IIS frequently required server

extensibility to be developed using the native ISAPI filter or extension extensibility

mode, due to the runtime limitations of ASP.NET. IIS7 allows ASP.NET modules to

plug in directly into the server pipeline, with the same runtime fidelity as modules

developed with the native (C++) server API. ASP.NET modules can execute in all runtime

stages of the request processing pipeline, and be executed in any order with respect to

native modules. The ASP.NET API has also been expanded to allow more control over

request processing then was previously possible.

3) Unified server runtime. Tighter ASP.NET integration also allows many of the features

between IIS and ASP.NET to be unified. IIS7 features unified configuration for IIS and

ASP.NET modules and handlers. Many other features, including custom errors, and

tracing, have been unified to allow better management and cohesive application design.

In IIS6 and previous releases, ASP.NET was implemented as an IIS ISAPI extension.

A request to an ASP.NET content type would be first processed by IIS, and then forwarded

to the ASP.NET ISAPI DLL, which hosted the ASP.NET request pipeline and page framework.

Requests to non-ASP.NET content, such as ASP pages, or static files, would be processed

by IIS or other ISAPI extensions and were not visible to ASP.NET. The major limitation of this

model is the fact that services provided by ASP.NET modules, and custom ASP.NET application

code was not available to non-ASP.NET requests. In addition, ASP.NET modules were unable

to affect certain parts of IIS request processing that occurred before and after the ASP.NET

execution path.

Security : Anonymous User i.e. IUSER is a built in IIS user and not a system account,

also we could create IIS user's which are different from system users.

Delegation and Remote Administration : Delegation Administration of IIS to owners of their

site, so that they could manage/configure their site.

In addition to managing IIS on the local computer, IIS Manager can be used to manage

remote servers, sites, and applications. The server administrator uses remote administration

features to add IIS Manager user accounts and to allow those users to connect to any sites

or applications for which they have permission. Configuring remote administration involves

enabling remote connections in IIS Manager and configuring the type of credentials required

to connect to the server. Optionally, you can change default connection and logging settings,

and add connection restrictions based on IP addresses or domain names.

FastCGI : The FastCGI is module which is a part of ‘CGI’ setup option in IIS 7; it enables IIS

to handle PHP scripts. FastCGI host the PHP scripting engine, and mapping it to handle PHP scripts.

SecureFTP: We have FTP with SSL support, which was not supported in earlier version i.e. IIS 6.

Tracing and Diagnostics : We could view Detailed Errors in Browsers.

Runtime State Information in real time.

Automation IIS 7 Management

Tools Other than IIS manager for the management.

APPCMD: This is command line tool, using which we could manage whole IIS.

API: Microsoft.Web.Administration

WMI = New Namespace for IIS 7

Powershell

Server Core : This is a feature of Windows 2008 where in there is an installation option

where we don’t install the UI we just get the command line.

Global Configuration File : applicationHost.Config is the main file of IIS 7, that contains

all site, appPools, default settings,

Windows 2008 Web Server Edition : Allows upto 4 GB of RAM, 4 CPUs on both 32/64 bit

versions + Allows on-server Database for web-application