Hiya,

Coming out of the Windows Server 2008 Hosting Roadshow, the same technical labs are available through MS Virtual Labs. The links to these labs are below.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Let me know what you think or if you have questions.

-brett

A big shout out to IIS Pm Kanwaljeet Singla

File this under must have details for IIS 7. Very practical info on IIS 7 registry keys.

http://blogs.iis.net/ksingla/archive/2007/12/30/list-of-registry-keys-affecting-iis7-behavior.aspx

-brett

WebDAV is a way to publish files to your server. I've been a fan since I first saw it and have been teaching people about it for years. When you have everything setup correctly, you can open a web folder in Network Places (or neighborhood or whatever), or on your desktop, and when you drag and drop files into the folder, it publishes over the network using http to the server. Unfortunately, the story about DAV from Microsoft's end has been rather mottled. The specifics of what is possible using DAV, how it appears and behaves depends on the precise combination of which server you're using (DAV was supported on IIS 5 as well), the client (XP, 2000, Vista), and what application you use to do the DAV connection (Explorer, IE, Office, FrontPage).

However, in IIS 7, there is some very good news. Robert McMurray on the IIS team is the same guy that manages the FTP 7 project. He has improved, the DAV story for IIS 7 in many ways. I've had the chance to chat with him on numerous occasions about his vision and hopes for DAV and other publishing protocols and can tell you that he's the right guy for the job.

One of the biggest improvements is that DAV can be enabled per URL. In IIS 6, and 5, DAV was either functional for all sites or not. Now, you can use it just where you need it. The IIS 7 DAV provider integrates with the IIS 7 UI and leverages IIS 7 URL Authorization. URL Auth lets you allow or deny access to content using web.config files instead of ACLS.

This version of DAV is the SERVER side component. The client side will use one of the various providers mentioned earlier - but should work by simply creating a network connection to a dav enabled URL. One way to do this is in IE, using File, Open and selecting the checkbox "open as a web folder".

Once you setup DAV and get used to using it, you'll wonder how you managed without it.

http://blogs.iis.net/robert_mcmurray/archive/2007/12/22/webdav-module-for-windows-server-2008-golive-beta-is-released.aspx

-brett

So, say you're a developer and your thinking "gosh [like developers would say 'gosh'. How about OMG!], what If I could host IIS 7 in my application rather than have my application delivered by IIS 7".

IIS 7 has a feature that virtually no one has heard of called the hostable web core. It's purely a Developer feature but has a ton of potential so check out this blog post that has the most info released to date.

http://blogs.iis.net/ksingla/archive/2007/12/20/ins-amp-outs-of-hostable-web-core.aspx

Enjoy!

Brett

A really excellent article recently posted on MSDN about PHP and IIS 7. This walks you through creating using a managed module to provide "friendly" URLS with PHP plus using the built in cache to improve application speed. 

IIS 7.0: Enhance Your Apps with the Integrated ASP.NET Pipeline -- MSDN Magazine, January 2008

New IIS 7 Virtual Labs online! 

You can get hands on with IIS 7's new features and capabilties with these free online labs. These are IT Pro focused labs that came from the hosting roadshow and have been re-factored for online use. Enjoy!

• Installation and the Modular Architecture
• Installing ASP, ASP.NET and PHP/FastCGI Applications on IIS 7
• Using the new IIS 7 Configuration System featuring Delegated and Remote Administration 
• Troubleshooting with IIS 7 Failed Request Tracing 
• Using APPCMD with IIS 7

-Brett

BTW, RC1 of Windows Server 2008 is released. AFAIK, this is the last release before RTM.  Expect to see the official launch Feb 28th.

You can upgrade from RC1 to RTM! So if you've been avoiding Beta releases out of concern for stability, RC1 is is solid. (Actually, the server was really solid around beta 3).

Lots of new things to be excited about including an improved TCP/IP stack that should dramatically increase file transfers between Vista/Server and Server/Server. 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx

BTW, the bits for SP1 of Vista share a lot in common with server as they are same the code base. As a result, Vista benefits from a lot of work done on Server and visa vera.  In the case of IIS 7, you will also get some new features.

=brett 

It's great to see this list of changes and updates to Vista coming up in SP1. Keep in mind that all of this is baked in to Windows Server 2008 as well. 

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071208/vista-sp1-changelog/

Microsoft publishes detailed Vista SP1 “changelog” - istartedsomething

https://windowsbeta.microsoft.com/server/intro.aspx  is page that is open to the general public asking for feedback about Windows Server 2008.

I really want to encourage Microsoft to do more of this kind of thing and customer to take advantage of it!

Take a moment to respond if you can.

Thanks,

Brett

Good news!

Some of the labs we are using in the web hosting roadshow are now online. No muss no fuss, and free. The labs use the virtual labs technology that involves Virtual Server services hosted at Technet so you can explore IIS 7 on a real, bona fide, Windows Server 2008 server, over the internet right in your browser. If you haven't checked out the virtual labs, it's very cool. Check it out!

Hey, this blog post by  all around head geek, Scott Guthrie announces a new application deployment system in the works for IIS 7.

...We will also shortly begin sharing details of a new web application deployment framework for IIS that enables you to easily automate the deployment of web applications on either a single server or across a web farm of machines. ...

See the bottom of the post for as many details as are avail. I'll keep you posted as details emerge.

.NET Web Product Roadmap (ASP.NET, Silverlight, IIS7) - ScottGu's Blog

I've said before that Server Core will make a very cool low footprint PHP engine. Here's a How-to that details configuring server core with MySQL and PHP.  Nice work!

Dennis Chung - Windows MVP: Server Core + IIS7 + PHP + MySQL

IIS 6 to IIS 7 Migration planning is starting up in full swing as we approach RTM for IIS 7. For those of looking for a mapping of IIS metabase to IIS 7 applicationhost.config settings, here's a really excellent document published by the IIS documentation team.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965021.aspx

A (IIS 6.0 Metabase Property Mapping to IIS 7.0)

Cool!

Here's a new IIS Manager add on that allows you to backup and restore config using appcmd. Nice add on!

: IIS7 - Backup Restore UI Module

The IIS team has release the RTM version of FastCGI for IIS 6. If you're running PHP on IIS 6, or would like to - this release is key for increasing performance and reliability. 

IIS.net : FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 - RTM : Download : Microsoft Internet Information Services

Here are some photos from the hosting roadshow in Toronto which was very well received!

Windows Server 2008 Hosting Roadshow - a photoset on Flickr

It's all in the name! Sql Server driver for PHP! Now develop and deploy on the same platform. On IIS 7 it's even better cause you get caching, urlathorization, urlfitering, forms authenticaiton and the integrated pipeline. Oh did I mention tracing and diagnostics? 

Download details: SQL Server 2005 Driver for PHP CTP (October 2007)

CTO of Applied.net sounds off about IIS 7 in production.

" I can say with confidence that we currently run IIS7 in production with Kayako Support Suite and it is extremely efficient.  We have always suffered with the challenge of deploying multiple server platforms in order to achieve a specific functionality from a php based application. This is no longer the case thanks to IIS7.   This  also means that “hybrid” developers will finally have a unified development platform."

Really, when I talk about IIS 7 being better, I'm not just making this stuff up.

Web Host Industry Review | theWHIR Blogs : The Skinny on IIS7

By special request, here's an outline of the users and groups used by IIS and what they do.

IIS 5 and 6

- IUSR_<servermame> - this is the default anon user for IIS 4, 5, and 6. It is a local account with a large, random password. The account does not exist until IIS is installed. IIS is installed by default on Windows 2000 but not 2003. If you disable this account, anon authentication will fail unless you create assign a new one. This user is a member of Everyone, Users, Authenicated Users, Guests, and the Network built in account (by default).

- IWAM_<servername> - this guy is found on IIS 5 and on IIS 6. I don't recall if it's in IIS 4 as I haven't laid eyes in an IIS 4 server in about 5 years. In IIS 6, it is only used when you run your server in IIS 5 mode, called IIS 5 worker process isolation mode or some such overly long phrase. In this case, sites  and application that are set to run in medium or high isolation run in dllhost.exe as the IWAM_<servername> user.

- ASPNET - this is a local account used to launch the aspnet_wp.exe on IIS 5 and in IIS 6 when it runs in IIS 5 mode.See http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bakfs900(VS.80).aspx for details on how to control the identity of asp_net.exe. It is not typically used in IIS 6 and is not supported on IIS 7.

- IIS_WPG - This is a local group on Windows Server 2003 that is used for one purpose. The IIS _WPG has rights to register application pools with http.sys. What this means is that that if you assign an application pool a unique idenity, you must also add them to this group. By default, this group has the System, Local Service and Network Service accounts in it. By default, application pools on IIS 6 use the Network Service account. If you don't assign custom application pool idenities, you don't need to mess with the membership of this group. Do not delete this group, espcially on a domain controller.

IIS 7

Doesn't have any of the above accounts. Instead you'll find:

- IUSR - built in account for Windows Server 2008 and Vista. Created when IIS 7 is instaled. The IUSR account has the same SID on all Windows Server 2008 systems and Vista. A built in account is different than a local account. Built in accounts cannot be used to log in locally to the server so they don't have a password.

- IUSRS - This is the updated version of the IIS_WPG for IIS 7. The new coolness is that has autmatically maintained membership.

-------

What runs as who when?

For anonymous access, the request will be the run as the assinged anonymous user (preusming that anon authentication is enabled and the anon user has the required access rights). If the request is for ASP.net, subsequent page requests and background operations will access the file system as the process identity (this is the default behavior). Most of the time this is the Network Service account on IIS 6 or the ASPNET user on IIS 5. If not using ASP.net, file access for will be as the anonymous user unless the application your a running reverts to the process identity to do something on the server that the user does not have rights to do. There are quite a few more complications of course, but this typically how things go.

To do research about this, your best friend is Filemon.exe. I learned most of the limited knowledge I have about this by messing around with Filemon and permissions. When you set Deny Full Control, Everyone on a file and then access the file in the web application while Filemon is running, the Access Denied in Filemon will also show you the user that was denied access. Another fun tool to play with is w3ho.dll, a resource kit utility.

Hopefully this is useful.

Let me know

-brett

More goodness from the IIS team.

Two more updates from the IIS team are available.

A new one that has not been seen before by the public is a "Media Pack" that adds bit rate throttling to to IIS 7. In other words, if you have .WMV on your site that people play, why send it faster than they can play it? This little gem can instantly reclaim bandwidth that is wasted when the client clicks away and tosses unplayed bits they recieved but did not use. 

Also, a stand alone IIS Manager that you install on client systems to do remote authentication has been released.

These are "technical previews", not fully released code so if you want to provide feedback, please do. The Forums on IIS.net is a good place to that.

New IIS7 Modules: IIS7 Remote Manager for Windows Server 2008 RC0 and Media Pack Bit-Rate Throttling Module Tech Preview - Mai-lan's Blog

This new FTP service incorporates many new features that enable web authors to publish content better than before, and offers web administrators more security and deployment options.

·         Integration with IIS 7.0: IIS 7.0 has a brand-new administration interface and configuration store, and the new FTP service is tightly integrated with this new design. The old IIS 6 metabase is gone, and a new configuration store that is based on the .NET XML-based *.config format has taken its place. In addition, IIS 7.0 has a new administration tool, and the new FTP server plugs seamlessly into that paradigm.

·         Support for new Internet standards: One of the most significant features in the new FTP server is support for FTP over SSL. The new FTP server also supports other Internet improvements such as UTF8 and IPv6.

·         Shared hosting improvements: By fully integrating into IIS 7.0, the new FTP server makes it possible to host FTP and Web content from the same site by simply adding an FTP binding to an existing Web site. In addition, the FTP server now has virtual host name support, making it possible to host multiple FTP sites on the same IP address. The new FTP server also has improved user isolation, now making it possible to isolate users through per-user virtual directories.

·         Extensibility and custom authentication: The new FTP server supports developer extensibility, making it possible for software vendors to write custom providers for FTP authentication. Microsoft is using this extensibility feature to implement two new methods for using non-Windows accounts for FTP authentication for IIS Managers and .NET Membership.

·         Improved logging support: FTP logging has been enhanced to include all FTP-related traffic, unique tracking for FTP sessions, FTP sub-statuses, additional detail fields in FTP logs, and much more.

·         New supportability features: IIS 7.0 has a new option to display detailed error messages for local users, and the FTP server supports this by providing detailed error responses when logging on locally to an FTP server. The FTP server also logs detailed information using Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), which provides additional detailed information for troubleshooting.

Additional information about new features in FTP7 is available in the "What's New for Microsoft and FTP?" topic on Microsoft's www.iis.net web site.

The following prerequisites are required to install this new version:

1. You must be using Windows Server 2008 (code name "Longhorn") Release Candidate 0 (RC0) or later.
2. Internet Information Services 7.0 must be installed.
3. If you are going to manage the new FTP server using the IIS 7.0 user interface, the administration tool will need to be installed.
4. You must install the new FTP server as an administrator.
5. IIS 7.0 supports a new shared configuration environment, which must be disabled on each server in a web farm before installing the new FTP server for each node. Note: Shared configuration can be re-enabled after the FTP server had been installed.
6. The FTP server that is shipped on the Windows Server 2008 DVD must be uninstalled before installing the new FTP server.

To help you get started using the new FTP server, the following walkthroughs have been published on the www.iis.net web site:

• Installing FTP7:
• Installing and Troubleshooting FTP7
• Working with FTP Sites:
• Creating a New FTP Site
• Add FTP publishing to an existing Web site
• Configuring Security Features:
• Configure FTP over SSL
• Configure FTP User Isolation
• Configure FTP virtual host names
• Configuring FTP Firewall Settings
• Advanced Administrative Features:
• Using FSRM Folder Quotas with FTP
• Configure IIS Manager Authentication
• Administering the New FTP Service using the IIS 7 Configuration Files

Lots of IIS 7 online events coming up in October.

If you want the latest info on these features, these kinds of events are essential information. Great stuff and hear tips from the IIS PMs that are often very useful in practice.

Check it out. 

Keith Combs' Blahg : Key IIS7 trainings in October

In case you missed it, RC0 released yesterday.

This is a very big milestone and IIS 7 with FastCGI and all the other goodness therein is included.

There are a few known issues posted on Mai-lan's blog at http://blogs.iis.net/mailant/archive/2007/09/24/windows-server-2008-rc0-available-now.aspx

You can find the bits at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb687945.aspx .There's even a VPC there so no excuses about not having hardware!

Why do I want you to check this out? Cause IIS 7 is not your typical version number increase release.
It is, in effect, an entirely new web server with new capabilites.

Enjoy!

- brett

Did you know that Microsoft.com is fully deployed on IIS 7?

Here's what they like about IIS 7. It's a good read as these guys are straight shooters, and they don't be paid to sell servers- just to keep them running - which they are great at.

Here's the top 10

Simple, Configurable Command Line Setup

Great Compatibility Story

No More Metabase!  (ye-haw!)

Centralized Configuration

Delegated Configuration

AppCmd and Other New Management Options

Failed Request Tracing

Request Filtering

UNC Content

Output Caching of Dynamic Content

Microsoft.com Operations : The Tasty Morsels Found In Dogfood… MSCOM OPS Top 10 Changes In IIS7.0

Ok, so I haven't posted in a bit, cause I'm working far to hard on the roadshow content.

Which - BTW, will be the best ever hands on labs for IIS 7 every produced in the history of the universe. Of course, since there's only been a couple that I know about, and I was involved with those, there isn't a lot of competition.

The hosting road show labs will be available on line so even if you're not a hoster, you can do these and will learn some of the cool goodness that is built into IIS 7. I gotta say, this thing ROCKS. It's a different sort of bird than you might expect after working with IIS 6, but it will do so much more for you and your business that you're going to have to get there sooner than you think.

Next week there will be some NEWS. I can't tell you what the NEWS is. We know that RC0 is coming out so put on your thinking cap and imagine what the IIS team is doing. (.........) times up.....

You'll find out soon.... And be prepared to see some goodness. I piece of the NEWS I am particularly excited about will will really help when you XXXXXXXXXXXXX servers in  in XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXx sceanrios. [sections edited by my new IIS7 module I wrote called "KeepEmployed". It filters out information I can't talk about......]

Hey... whose that at my door.?.. What? Let go of that comptuer.! .sd,vs,vc,./kvcvcvb

Just in case anyone is reading this, you might have seen the posts from my EMEA web summit tour. Well, for some reason in Poland they decided to record the entire day.

Here are the links to the lectures and slide decks.

List of all session links to Web Administration Summit 2007:

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/itsshowtime/result_search.aspx?event=69&x=13&y=2

WEB ADMINISTRATION SUMMIT

IIS 7 Web Server Platform- Windows Server “Longhorn”

Microsoft’s Next Generation Web Server: What’s New in IIS 7 for IT Pros

Isaac Roybal, Product Manager, Windows Server, Microsoft Corporation

This overview session will highlight the key points of interests for IT Pros in Internet Information Services version 7.  IIS7 modularity increases security by allowing a reduced installation footprint and creation of specialized, streamlined servers. Application Pools are now “sandboxed” by default.  You’ll see how IIS7 eases administration with a new IIS Manage UI, delegated administration, and new tools for automating administrative tasks. Applications run more reliably as they are easier to troubleshoot with built in tracing and diagnostics. Finally, multiple servers can use a single configuration file with the shared configuration feature for web farms.

IIS7 Administration: The New IIS Manager

Brett Hill, IIS Sr. Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

IIS7 Administration centers around the new task-oriented IIS Manager. This redesigned administration tool has many major new capabilities including the ability to delegate features, edit .NET configuration and has significantly improved performance when managing many sites. The IIS Manager itself is an extensible, modular application that administrators can customize and developers can extend.  In this presentation we’ll explore how use and control the IIS Manager with a special focus on Delegated Administration. In addition, we’ll explore how to use Granular Locking to fine tune your delegated settings beyond those available in the UI.

IIS7 Administration: Shared Configuration, Remote Control, and Automated Tools

Isaac Roybal, Product Manager, Windows Server, Microsoft Corporation

For web farms, IIS7 has a powerful new feature – Shared Configuration. This allows you to configure multiple servers to share a single configuration file. The benefits are clear - all web servers have identical configuration so there’s no need to do configuration replication.

In addition, IIS Manager has built in remote administration capabilities. Using https between the IIS Manager and the remote server, this feature includes the ability to define trusted users in IIS Manager and have identities securely stored in the IIS configuration, Windows SAM or AD, or a .NET provider.

Of course, many organizations need to automate administration tasks.  APPCMD is the new powerful, general purpose command line utility for controlling configuration, state for site and pools, and querying status. WMI has been improved specifically for IIS management, and there’s a new managed code API Microsoft.Web.Adminsitrationis that makes it easy for developers use .NET to write IIS management tools. PowerShell can use the managed API or WMI, giving you a superior command line and scripting environment for managing your servers.

IIS 7 Security: Less Exposure, Greater Control

Brett Hill, IIS Sr. Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

IIS7 security improvements can be found in many areas. In addition to the ability to control the server footprint, security is improved with the new URLFiltering and URLAuthorization capabilities. Also, you can now use Forms authentication with any content while leveraging .NET role and membership providers. In addition, there are key changes in the user principles and groups used by IIS7 that will make the server both easier to manage and more secure.  Finally, application pool sandboxing helps to improve the security boundary between application pools.

IIS 7 Troubleshooting: Failed Request Tracing

Isaac Roybal, Product Manager, Windows Server, Microsoft Corporation

One of the most exciting features in IIS 7 for administrators is the new built-in failed request tracing capabilities. You can configure IIS 7 to automatically create a detailed trace log of events that occurred in the request processing pipeline when specific error codes are seen and/or if a request takes more than N seconds to complete. This is configurable at the server, site, application, or file level, and can be configured in the UI or with a command line tool. The resulting trace log is ideal for identifying bottlenecks. Like everything in IIS 7, it is extensible and can be customized with new events.

Mvolo writes another great piece about coding for IIS7. In this detailed blog entry, he covers how to write and why to write modules and handlers on IIS7.