Microsoft Web Platform Installer RC now out!

Nutshell: Microsoft Web Platform Installer is a great tool to have.

You may ask, Why? Well, for the readers who are not yet aware of Web PI, it installs and updates all of Microsoft's web platform packages from a single interface. With the release of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, we have seen great enhancements in Microsoft's web offerings and it thus became a bit tedious to co-ordinate between the developer and an Admins choice of install. Well if you are into managing such a scenario, you will discover Web PI can save ample amount of time. However, there was a gotcha when I used it the first time around. It dint work on any versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista. If you are from a location near me you might already know that the practical use of such an offering would not be anytime soon. However, seems like Microsoft has heard our inputs and they have given us just what we wanted...

Bil Staples, a couple days back announced the availability of Microsoft Web Platform RC version which by the way now supports Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Now isn't that cool. Not very often do we see requests become a solution at such a quick pace.

However, something that seemed cool to me is the variety of options and flexibility this tool brings with it. All you need to do is install the roughly 600Kb file (Yeah! it's just that small.) and select the options you like and that's it. The installer will download and install them for you...

Web PI will take care of giving you the options that suit your Operating system version. For example, if you are on Windows Vista then you will get the option of IIS 7 and if on Windows Server 2003 then you will get the option of IIS6. Sames goes for Windows Xp wherein you will get the option of IIS 5.1.

If you are a beginner on Web platforms then this is the best way to hit it off. Oh Yes! just one more thing... you need admin privileges to use Web PI and need to have the .Net 2.0 framework running... check it out...

How To: AppCMD in IIS 7 - An Introduction

AppCMD is the main command line utility for managing IIS 7 within Windows Vista and Windows Sever 2008...I have felt navigating through AppCMD is easier than ADSUTIL.vbs (its predecessor) but here's an entry nevertheless for the beginners.

Below are a few basic commands and tips to get you started.

AppCMD is found in %windir%/system32/inetsrv. You will need to run the command prompt with elevated priviliges to access this command line utility.

Appcmd /? - This will give you the help for the utility

Appcmd list sites - This will list all the sites on the sever along with their ID, Bindings and State.

Appcmd list config -section:? - This will list all the available section names

Appcmd list config "Default web site" - This will list the entire configuration of the "Default Web Site"

Appcmd list wp - This will list all the worker processess running at the system.

Appcmd start site "Default Web site" - This will start the Default Website

Appcmd stop site "Default Web site" - This will stop the Default Website

Appcmd list appPool - This will give you information of the running Application pools on your machine along with their managed version, managed mode and state.

Scenario 1: I would like to find out the default document for my default website and add a new document named sample.htm in it.

The scenario is simply 2 questions, therefore run the following 2 commands to achieve the result.

Appcmd list config "Default Web Site"-section:defaultDocument

Appcmd set config "Default Web Site"-section:defaultDocument /+files.[@end,value='sample.html']

The above command will add the file sample.htm at the end of the default document list. You might run the 1st command once again to verify that the document has been added to the list.

Scenario 2: I want to collect the configuration of my default web site in a separate file named configuration.txt and place it in d:\

Here's the command for that:

Appcmd list config "Default Web Site" >d:\configuration.txt

Just to verify try this:

notepad d:\configuration.txt - This shall bring up a notepad showing you the configuration of your Default Web Site.

Scenario 3: I want to find the current requests being served by the Default App Pool.

You will need to put in this command to get the required information:

Appcmd list requests /apppool.name:DefaultAppPool

The rest I leave for you to try out! Have fun ...

IIS 7 Feature Delegation

IIS 7 has come with some very cool features; be it the cool new UI, which has got the right information at the correct places or the integrated pipeline architecture of the core webserver itself of which I have spoken earlier.However, one feature that will help every IIS admin out there is Feature Delegation. If you are in a web hosting scenario or you maintain a web infrastructure for large corporations then this one's for you.

Feature delegation is a method to delegate certain features within IIS to the non-admins or simply a dev team. For instance, on a developement box, if you do not want to control the error pages then you could delegate the module to the development team. However, error pages are not the only module that you can delegate. You can give control for a wide variety of modules depending on your environment and your planning.

Feature delegation is decided at the server level and the rules are followed at all the lower levels. IIS manager permissions (which I see as a sub-set to feature delegation) is given at Site and Application Level. This together, gives us, IIS admins, the much needed flexibility to give away the right priviliges to the concerned people.

Feature Delegation is present on both Windows Vista and Windows server 2008, but, IIS manager permissions is present only on Windows Server 2008.

The video below will give you a brief explaination of how that can be done. Have fun!




Let me know if you need more info...