Entries tagged with iis7 - TechNet Edge

IIS 7.5 Application Request Routing RTW

Joey Snow — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Today marks the final version of IIS Application Request Routing (ARR) 2.0 RTW – an extension for IIS that enables Web server administrators, hosting providers, and Content Delivery Network providers to increase Web application scalability and reliability through rule-based routing, client and host name affinity, load balancing of HTTP server requests, and distributed disk caching. With ARR 2.0, administrators can optimize resource utilization for application servers to reduce management costs for Web server farms and shared hosting environments.

PHP pod IIS7 (CZ)

Karel Florian (KFL) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:42:00 GMT

Tento screencast vás provede postupem, jak nainstalovat podporu PHP do webového serveru IIS7.

Autorem screencastu je Štěpán Pazderka.

OSS Screencast Series - Part 3 - Installing Wordpress on Windows Server 2008

Keith Combs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:29:00 GMT

Why on earth would you run the LAMP stack on Windows? Well for one thing LAMP commonly refers to Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. So running LAMP on Windows Server 2008 really means running it in a virtual machine and the only supported method for doing that at the moment is via SUSE Enterprise Server from Novell. This was discussed on the webcast I delivered today that more broadly discusses running Open Source Software (OSS) on Windows Server with IIS7.

In order to take one or more open source applications to the Windows platform, you might choose the prudent and safe route. First running the entire LAMP stack in a VM. Next, you might decide to remove the L and run the AMP portions on Windows Server 2008. That's where the meat of the webcast I did today really starts. You'll see in the second webcast demo we install Apache. Later we install PHP, MySQL then Drupal on top of all of that.

The purpose of the webcast is to highlight the migration and coexistence that is possible. You don't have to totally tear everything you know and love down and replace it. Windows Server 2008 will be happy to run Apache, MySQL and PHP. If you decide to replace pieces of that solution over time, you can do so pretty easily and that is demonstrated in the webcast replay.

I decided to record a higher fidelity version of some of the demos and instead of using the Drupal software used in the webcast, I used a common blogging software product called Wordpress. So here is Part 3, installing Wordpress.

See my blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/12/16/running-lamp-on-windows-server-2008-webcast-and-screencasts-now-available.aspx for more information.

OSS Screencast Series - Part 2 - Installing MySQL on Windows Server 2008

Keith Combs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:26:00 GMT

I decided to record a higher fidelity version of some of the demos and instead of using the Drupal software used in the webcast, I used a common blogging software product called Wordpress. So here is Part 2 on installing MySQL.

See my blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/12/16/running-lamp-on-windows-server-2008-webcast-and-screencasts-now-available.aspx for more information.

OSS Screencast Series - Part 1 - Installing PHP on Windows Server 2008

Keith Combs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:25:00 GMT

I decided to record a higher fidelity version of some of the demos and instead of using the Drupal software used in the webcast, I used a common blogging software product called Wordpress. So here is Part 1 on installing PHP.

See my blog post at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/12/16/running-lamp-on-windows-server-2008-webcast-and-screencasts-now-available.aspx for more information.

Pete LePage and IE 8 Compatibility Interview @TechEd Barcelona

Matt Hester — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:10:00 GMT

I caught up with Pete LePage again, this in time in Barcelona. More importantly I caught up with him on my own turf at TechEd among all the wonderful IT Pros. Now he was the stranger in the strange land. We had a great conversation around how to think about Internet Explorer 8 and compatibility. BTW, yes that really is the Mediterranean Ocean behind us.

One of concepts we discussed in the interview was the x-ua compatible tag you can put in the HTTP Response Headers of your web servers. Look for a quick screencast to show how this is done in the near future. This metatag would affect all of the websites on the server:

"X-UA-Compatible value="IE=EmulateIE7"

Additionally the web developer can add a similar meta tag to the site or page. The fun question is what meta tag wins, if there is a conflict between the server, site, page or user setting? The answer is simple the page setting will always win in the case of a conflict.

Resources:

Great article on IE 8 and compatibility: Compatibility and Internet Explorer 8
Additional information for adding custom HTTP response headers on various versions of IIS and Apache servers:
IIS7.0, IIS6.0, Apache 2.2, Apache 2.0, Apache 1.3
Compatibly center: Internet Explorer Compatibility Center
Check out the first interview with Pete here:
http://edge.technet.com/Media/Pete-LePage-Talking-IE-8-Tools--PDC/

Feature of the Week: Announcing Web Application Installer (Beta)

Joey Snow — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:23:00 GMT

ITPro - Feature of the Week

Hey it’s me again. Back with more IIS 7 goodness. It’s hard not to talk about all of this IIS stuff with the I featured last week as well as all of the really cool IIS extensions. This week I give you a look at another brand new tool. Have you been wanting to run some of the more popular community PHP and .NET web applications on Windows Server? Don’t know where to start? Do you want to make sure you have everything you need? Today we announce:

Web Application Installer (Beta)

Who’s it for? IT Professionals, Website Administrators, and Website Developers.

When does it ship? Web Application Installer (Web AI) is currently released in Beta form.

http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebApplicationInstaller.aspx

What does it do? It’s a single tool that helps you gets you easy access to popular community PHP and .NET web applications such as:

· Wordpress

· Graffiti

· DotNetNuke

· Drupal

· osCommerce

· PHPBB

Web AI does all of the work such as checking your computer for the required prerequisites, configuring IIS7, downloading applications for their source locations in the community, and installing the application. I was shown one example where Wordpress was deployed by simply launching the Web AI installer, selecting Wordpress from the list of applications and telling the installer your credentials as well as what type of website that should be installed.

Sounds cool, but what version of Windows does it run on? Web AI runs on Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1.

Do I have to use IIS? Can I run it on Apache? Web AI relies on IIS extensions so no. You need to run IIS 7.

If I don’t have IIS7 or a database on my system will it install it for me? The Web AI applications require IIS 7 and a database to work. If you have access to a remote SQL Server database or even a MySQL database, the installer can install the applications on one machine and create the required databases on another. Of course you could go Microsoft Web Platform site.

Where can I get more information?

Microsoft’s Web Platform Site

IIS.net forums on Web AI

Web AI Readme file

MVP Screencast Contest

Joey Snow — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:04:00 GMT

We've posted some good stuff around IIS lately, but we want MORE! Matt Hester and Keith Combs, two of our rock star IT Pro Evangelists, have thrown down the gauntlet for those of you who are currently a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), and have launched a VERY cool contest. Here are the details:

First off you have to be a current US Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and being willing to show off your rock star screencast skills. To enter you need to create a 5 – 10 minute screencast on IIS and PHP integration. The screencast must showcase the integration of PHP into IIS 7.0 on Windows Server 2008. I also want to see it actually work you should show an PHP application on the IIS server (i.e. Wordpress) running and demonstrated inside of Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, and verified it is running inside of the IIS 7 environment.

Sound cool and techy and you want to enter? but your not sure how do all of that? Well I am here to help. Here are some excellent resources for you to get started:

Keith Combs did similar screencasts on this already: Windows Server 2008 Core screencast - Installing Open Source Software
There is also Virtual Labs to get you started here: TechNet Virtual Lab: Compare V-Labs- Lab 1

The screencasts entries will be judged by a blue ribbon group of IT Pro superstars and will be judged on Creativity, Presentation, Inclusion of Microsoft Technologies and Effective demonstration of the integration of PHP in to IIS.

Here are the prizes:

Grand Prize - Lenovo ThinkPad T61p notebook computer
First Place - 60GB XBOX 360 game console
Second Place - 120GB Zune media player
Third Place - 8GB Zune Media player

So what do you have to do to enter?

Create a Screencast by December 15th
Drop the screencast at your favorite location, so we can download it (Remember it has to be Silverlight Compatible).
Send me an email with:
- Your name
- Address
- Phone
- Email Address
- Link to your the Screencast

*No Purchase Necessary. Open only to active Microsoft MVP members of the 50 US States (includes D of C). Game ends December 15, 2008. For full rules click HERE.

Feature of the Week: Web Platform Installer

Joey Snow — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:01:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to deploy an IIS website and been stymied by the myriad of installers and downloads that you have to collect? We tout an integrated platform, yet one of the knocks against Microsoft is that we make it difficult to go get all of the various components. That problem is no more. I bring you Web Platform Installer (WebPI) Like my buddy David Lowe in the IIS team says: “It’s like Magnum PI, but without the moustache”.

Who’s it for? IT Professionals and Website Administrators, and Website Developers.

When does it ship? Web Platform Installer is currently released in Beta form.

· http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx

What does it do? It’s a single tool that helps you get started installing the Microsoft Web Platform including:

· ASP.NET components

· SQL Server 2008 Express Edition (and all required pre-requisite software)

· IIS Extensions such as Secure FTP, Web Playlists, URL Rewriter, and much more!

· Visual Web Developer

· .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

· SQL Server Driver for PHP

WOW! Impressive, but what if I don’t want to install all of that stuff? WebPI is great in that you can chose a complete install of all the software in the suite, a subset of software specifically designed for the ASP.NET Developer, or even your very own customized configuration.

It’s a Beta? Yes. Currently this is the first beta release of Web PI, but in the coming weeks, the various teams will be releasing updates that offer even more functionality to allow you to setup the Web applications you want and need. All you have to do is use Web PI to configure your environment and then you can stay up to date with the latest product releases and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform.

Where can I get more information?

Microsoft’s Web Platform Site

IIS.net forums on Web PI

Windows Server Team blog post on Web PI

IIS Extensions with Mai-lan

Joey Snow — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:01:00 GMT

I had a chance to sit down and talk with Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec Group Program Manager for IIS and get the inside scoop on a TON of new extensions for IIS that are being released to the web. Mai-lan details out the extensibility of IIS through features such as URL-Rewrite and some very cool new media extensions for those of you looking at putting media on your websites.

Feature of the Week: URLScan 3.0 for IIS 7.0

Joey Snow — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:01:00 GMT

Back in April there were reports that surfaced stating that web sites running on Internet Information Services (IIS) had been compromised by an automated attack that used vulnerabilities in web pages that did not follow security for best practices. These websites were taken advantage of via SQL injection attacks. While the only way to completely prevent SQL injection attacks is by following proper development best practices, URL Scan 3.0 is an updated IIS feature that will allow server administrators to help mitigate SQL injection attacks until the web application can be updated to protect against SQL injection. This post will provide more details on the latest version of this technology.

URL Scan 3.0

Who’s it for? IT Professionals and Website Administrators.

When does it ship? URL Scan 3.0 was released to the Web on 8/21/08 and can be downloaded from the following locations:

· 32 Bit: http://www.iis.net/go/1697

· 64 Bit: http://www.iis.net/go/1698

(Wow looking at those nice clean URL’s makes me want to post about another new IIS feature. I guess more on that later.)

What does it do? When installed and configured on a server running IIS 5.1 or higher, URLScan can scan incoming http requests and if the request contains content that is undesirable (like a SQL injection attack), that request can be rejected. By filtering these requests, URLScan helps prevent unwanted requests from potentially damaging the web application or even the web server.

How is URLScan different than the request filtering module that ships with IIS 7? The request filtering module does not have the ability to filter based on query strings like URLScan 3.0 does. Also you cannot specify rules applying to multiple parts of an HTTP request.

So didn’t URLScan exist before? Yes. URLScan 2.5 was originally released as part of the IIS Lockdown Tool and if you are using URLSCan 2.5, you can use your existing configuration file with URLScan 3.0 and everything will function fine. Plus you get the added URLScan 3.0 features!

What are the new URLScan 3.0 features? While the configuration format of URLScan 3.0 is the same as it’s predecessor, there are a number of new sections in the configuration to support the following new features:

· Deny rules can be independently applied to a query string, all headers, a particular header, a URL or a combination of the above.

· Configuration change notifications are propagated to the IIS worker processes so configuration changes don’t require worker process restarts.

· The global DENYQUERYSTRING section of the configuration file allows you to add deny rules for query strings and include an option to check the un-escaped version of the query string.

· The global ALWAYSALLOWEDQUERYSTRINGS section allows for the specification of safe query strings that will bypass all query string checks. (This feature was not in the previously released URLScan 3.0 beta).

· Descriptive configuration errors are now available in W3C formatted logging. This feature was also not available in the beta.

· Escape sequences like (%0A%0D) can now be used in deny rules allowing to deny CTRLF and other sequences involving non-printable characters.

How can URLScan be setup? URLScan can be setup up either as a global filter or a site level filter. A global filter is triggered for every HTTP request sent to the server. Site level filters are only invoked for HTTP requests sent to particular sites on a IIS server. Starting with URLScan 3.0 site filters can be used in conjunction with global filters.

Where can I get more information?

URLScan 3.0 FAQ

Using URLScan

Common URLScan Scenarios

IIS and Powershell

Adam Bomb — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:01:00 GMT

Rimantas Malinaukas is a Solution Architect for Propensity International in Sydney, Australia. Our own Jeff Alexander sat down with him to talk about a recent project where they built a solution on a pre-release of IIS7 and used Powershell to save the day when they discovered an issue in the product.
It's a great story about offering Software as a Service and a hosted solution.

Easy Steps to Get your Web Site to Support IE8

Neil Hutson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:59:00 GMT

Any users accessing your site using the Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) browser ( currently in Beta ) will typically not get a very good rendering experience if your site was designed for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) because of new standards that IE8 is supporting around HTML and CSS formats. There are two ways to resolve this.

1) The longer term option is to re-write your web application to render IE8 correctly - However this would not be my first choice.

2) The best ( to choose first off ) is to instruct any IE8 browsers to browse your site in IE7 emulation mode so that the current rendering is maintained. How do you do this? Simple

On a Per-site basis, site owners and administrators can include the following custom HTTP header to force Internet Explorer 8 to render Web pages like Internet Explorer 7:

X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7

To add a custom HTTP response header at the Web site level in Internet Information Services 7 on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Under Connections, double-click the server that you want, and then double-click Sites.
Click the Web site where you want to add the custom HTTP response header.
Under Web site name Home, double-click HTTP Response Headers in the IIS section.
Note In this step, Web site name is the name of the Web site.
Under Actions, click Add.
In the Name box, type X-UA-Compatible.
In the Value box, type IE=EmulateIE7.
Click OK.

You can also modify the IIS7 configuration file with the following details ( or you can check the config after the changes made above )

<system.webServer>
<httpProtocol>
<customHeaders>

<add name="X-UA-Compatible" value="IE=EmulateIE7" />

</customHeaders>

</httpProtocol>
</system.webServer>

To add a custom HTTP response header at the Web site level in Internet Information Services 6 and earlier versions, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type inetmgr.exe, and then click OK.
Expand the server that you want, and then expand Web Sites.
Right-click the Web site that you want, and then click Properties.
Under Custom HTTP headers, click Add.
In the Custom header name box, type X-UA-Compatible.
In the Custom header value box, type IE=EmulateIE7.
Click OK two times.

Per-page basis

Site owners and administrators can include the following special HTML tag after the <Head> tag on the page:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

The following example shows use of this Internet Explorer 7 compatibility mode tag on a per-page basis:

<html> <head> <!-- Use IE7 mode --> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" /> <title>My Web Page</title> </head> <body> <p>Content goes here.</p> </body> </html>

For more information about the EmulateIE7 tag, visit the IEBlog Web site:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/06/10/introducing-ie-emulateie7.aspx

To download IE8 for testing, you can go to the following location

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx

Streaming Media with Server 2008

David Tesar — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:14:00 GMT

I’ve always been intrigued on the idea of streaming my own music collection from my home server, so I decided to write this post on technology which can make this happen. If you’re running any version of Server 2008 other than the version for Itanium-based systems, you have the capability of using Windows Media Services and/or IIS7’s Media pack to stream your audio / video (media) content. What’s the difference and which should I use?

Windows Media Services – This enables you to stream media using the “mms” prefix in your player of choice and this method is commonly referred to as a media streaming server. You have the ability to broadcast media or setup on-demand publishing. To make this work, you must install the Media server role and after this download and install media services.

Some key benefits over IIS7 Media pack

Stream content using multi-cast
Proxy/Cache the stream and other options for bigger scale streaming operations
Broadcast media in addition to on-demand playback
More efficient utilization of network bandwidth by adjusting to network conditions

File formats supported : .asf, .wma, .wmv, .mp3 (with use of the MP3 media parser plug-in & doesn’t support VBR files), .jpg, .nsc, .wsx

Media Pack for IIS7 – This enables you to stream media using a method referred to as progressive download (or using a web server), This means the media is downloaded to the client machine, playing via some type of a client such as Windows Media Player, and often beginning to play before the file is completely downloaded. This method only allows you to setup on-demand playback.

The media pack includes two components: Bit Rate Throttling and Web Playlists; both of which must be installed separately on top of IIS7.

Benefits over Windows Media Services

Additional file formats officially supported for .avi, .flv, .mov, .rm, .mp4, and .rmvb with throttling, but any file format could potentially work.
Easily push out the configuration using the shared hosting capabilities of IIS7
Granularly configure bit rates for specific files/folders
Delegate permissions for others to modify the settings for specific files/folders

File formats supported: .asf, .avi, .flv, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .rm, .rmvb, .wma, .wmv.

Conclusion: If you have a very large amount of content you want to stream, then you’ll definitely want to use Windows Media Services due to the options available to scale and save bandwidth. However, IIS7’s media pack may be the right option for you if you’d like to stream the additional file formats and gain all of the benefits of being integrated with IIS7. For another great comparison between the two media streaming methods, see Chris Knowlton’s blog post.

Get started

IIS7 Media Pack - Bit Rate Throttling
IIS 7 Media Pack – Web Playlists
Windows Media Services Deployment Guide
Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008 (http) (doc version)

External Web Application Management Using IIS 7

Joey Snow — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:01:00 GMT

One service that typically requires remote administration by external consultants or application developers are web servers. In this 7 minute screencast MVP Corey Hynes takes us through the new managment service in IIS 7 that addresses the need to delegate remote administration while maintaining the security of your web server.

MSCOM OPS with Microsoft.com, WS08, IIS7, and the Lone Server

David Tesar — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:14:00 GMT

I sat down with Jeff Toews, a member of the Microsoft.com Operations (MSCOM OPS) Engineering Team which is responsible for managing, maintaining, and deploying all of the servers which host Microsoft.com and thousands of other MS websites.

In this interview, you get to learn a little bit about Microsoft's hosting environment and configuration, some good tips on migrating from WS03 / IIS 6, knowledge into some of the new IIS 7 features, and we learn the truth behind the Lone Server!

Because this one is a little bit long, I'm providing the breakdown for what is where in the video:
00:00 - Who Jeff is and what he and his team does
04:29 - What the environment & hardware config is like
06:20 - Steps they took to migrate from the start

Get it to install (worked with it in alpha)
Feedback / work with IIS7 product team
Configuration to test server
Performance testing & tuning (i.e. with WCAT, etc)
Move to single production box

12:32 - Challenges they had in the migration
14:37 - Specific tips on how to migrate from IIS6 to IIS7
18:18 - Migration from classic to integrated mode difficult?
19:30 - Benefits of Integrated Mode
28:58 - Performance Tips: Caching/compression/tuning dynamic content
33:15 - Does the Lone Server really exist?
35:40 - A final summary and information about failure request event buffering (FREB).
37:56 - Over the Edge

For "Over the Edge", learn about special edition Jimi Hendrix vodka, KEXP, see liquid which is "the size of a small infant" and the Beatles, and get Jeff's IIS7 book recommendations.

Getting PHP to perform on IIS7

Dave Northey — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I've been showing this demo to people in Ireland for while now & thought I'd better share it with a wider audience before I lose it (I'm going to wipe my demo laptop soon & reload it with Windows Server 2008).

Enjoy,

Dave.

Failed Request Tracing in IIS7

Neil Hutson — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:00:00 GMT

In this screencast, Ryan Dunn configures IIS7 server for Failed Request Tracing (sometimes called FREB). Failed Request Tracing is a powerful new capability in IIS7 that allows us to easily set rules on our web applications, that once triggered will log that request to disk and pull in all the relevant trace information. This feature is immensely useful for troubleshooting running applications where attaching a debugger is impractical.

Installing PHP Applications on IIS7

Neil Hutson — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:00:00 GMT

In this screencast, Ryan Dunn shows how easy it is to get PHP up and configured on your IIS7 webserver using FastCGI. The popular PHP-based blogging application, Wordpress, is used to demonstrate.

Additionally, we see how quickly and easily we can integrate a PHP app with IIS7's integrated pipeline as we convert Wordpress to use IIS7's built-in Forms Authentication.

Remote Administration and Delegation in IIS7

Neil Hutson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:27:00 GMT

In this screencast, Ryan Dunn configures a IIS7 server for remote administration and delegation. The remote administration service in IIS7 is a new and powerful feature that allows us to connect securely to our remote IIS server using a firewall-friendly SSL connection. Additionally, we can choose to use traditional Windows accounts for authentication or choose the new IIS Manager user accounts instead.

We will walk through the steps you must perform as the IIS administrator as well as the experience for a remote administrator using delegated features.