BillS IIS Blog

New Experiences @MIX from the Microsoft Web Platform

bills — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:19:49 GMT

Today is a BIG day for the Microsoft Web Platform and a BIG day for the WEB. I’m down in Las Vegas at MIX and I just got off stage from the keynote where I demo’d just one of the many exciting and cool new things that make the Microsoft Web Platform better than ever. For example:

Using the new Web Platform Installer 2.0 beta, you can now download and install all of the technologies that make up the Microsoft Web Platform, and some of the world’s most popular Web applications, in one simple tool.
With the new Windows Web App Gallery, you can now discover world-class ASP.NET and PHP applications, read reviews from the community, and submit your own comments, as well as launch installation of an application in one click right from the browser.
With IIS Media Services, a free addition to the IIS7 Web server, you can now provide high definition audio and video streams LIVE and on demand.
With the final release of ASP.NET MVC 1.0, you can now build applications in the popular Modal-View-Controller paradigm, have complete control over your HTML and CSS, and build inherently testable applications
With the upcoming Visual Studio 10 release, we announced you can now package and deploy applications from right within the Visual Studio development environment, including support for multiple deployment configuration targets
In conjunction with the Silverlight 3 release, we’re also shipping a beta of Silverlight Tools 3, a Visual Studio development environment for building Silverlight Applications.
The IIS team is also introducing 10 new IIS7 extensions which extend the capabilities of the already powerful Web server to do things like:

Built-in Database management support, integrated with IIS Manager
Application Request Routing (ARR v2 beta) which includes advanced routing and load balancing capabilities, built-in to IIS7, including all-new proxy/cache support
Brand new content publishing features with FTP 7.5 and WebDAV 7.5
The final release of the IIS7 PowerShell support for managing the Web server from the command line using PowerShell
Web server migration, Web farm synchronization and application packaging and deployment support using the release candidate version of the Web Deployment tool.

With Commerce Server 2009, you can now more easily deploy enterprise-grade commerce-enabled sites using built-in SharePoint support.

All said, this is an amazing amount of innovation and I’m very proud of my team and the many hours they put into creating these very compelling new experiences. Try it out today, and tell us what you think!

More Tips and Troubleshooting Help for Classic ASP Developers

bills — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:10:18 GMT

Back in May of 2007 I posted a tips for Classic ASP developers post which has since received more than 50 comments and 85,000 views. Robert McMurray just posted a set of fabulous tutorials for Classic ASP developers. If you’re out there and having issues with Classic ASP and IIS7 and need some help, you’re not alone! Read these articles to get help:

Classic ASP is not installed by default on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

In IIS 7.0 and 7.5, the classic version of ASP is not installed by default. Because of this, you might see HTTP 404 errors when you try to browse to an ASP page on your server, or you might see the source code for your ASP page displayed in your browser window ...

Using Classic ASP with Microsoft Access Databases on IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5

Note: Microsoft Access databases have been popular for many years with developers who use Active Server Pages (ASP) for small-scale applications, but Microsoft Access databases are not designed for scalability, therefore Access databases should only be used ...

Classic ASP script error messages are no longer shown in a Web browser by default

In earlier versions of IIS, error messages from classic ASP scripts were sent to a Web browser, by default. Because these error messages might reveal sensitive information to malicious users, IIS 7.0 disables this feature by default. When your classic ASP ...

Using Failed Request Tracing to troubleshoot Classic ASP errors

One of the great troubleshooting features that is built in to IIS 7.0 is Failed Request Tracing, which lets you configure tracing rules on your server that will create detailed troubleshooting log files for custom failure conditions that you define. For example ...

Classic ASP parent paths are disabled by default

Classic ASP Parent Paths let developers use relative addresses that contain ".." in the paths to files or folders. For example, the following code excerpt illustrates an ASP page that maps a parent path: % Response.Write Server.MapPath("../example.asp")%> ...

APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH Server Variable on Windows Vista RTM

The original release of IIS 7.0 that shipped with Windows Vista returned a different value for the APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH server variable than that which was returned by previous

IIS7 request routing and load balancing module released!

bills — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:06:29 GMT

The Application Request Router (ARR) has reached final release and is now available as a free, fully-supported download for IIS7! ARR enables Web server administrators and hosting providers and to increase Web application reliability and scalability through rule-based routing and load balancing of HTTP server requests. With ARR, administrators can optimize resource utilization for application servers to reduce management costs for Web farms and shared hosting environments. Read more about the key scenarios and features of ARR on the IIS.net/extension site.

For more information on the ARR release, including new features just added as well as links to documentation and how-to get started, see Won’s blog post (Won ran the ARR project and is the Program Manager for the feature team).

Download ARR v1 today! You can download ARR, and all of the other cool IIS7 extensions, with the Web Platform Installer (Web PI). Web PI has been updated to include the ARR release and makes it super easy to install the entire platform – IIS, ASP.NET, SQL Express and even our development tools like Visual Web Developer Express. Web PI is always up to date with the latest new features and fixes for all the technologies that make up the Microsoft Web Platform. You can also find direct download links for X86 and x64 on Won’s blog post, if you prefer.

ASP.NET MVC Release Candidate build available now!

bills — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:30:39 GMT

The ASP.NET team just released the near-final build of ASP.NET MVC! Download it today! The tools team added a ton of new features in this release that you’ll want to check out – ScottGu outlines all of the new features and improvements in his gigantic post http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/01/27/asp-net-mvc-1-0-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

Working with the ASP.NET and Visual Web Developer tools team is a new adventure for me and I’ve been super impressed with the people and the products they are cranking out. MVC in particular is a very impressive project that offers a powerful alternative to the traditional ASP.NET webforms model of development. If you haven’t checked out ASP.NET before, or haven’t had time to look at MVC, now is a great time to do it. You’ll want to start with the following links:

Microsoft Web Platform Installer v1.0 Released!

bills — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:03:49 GMT

I’m excited to announce the immediate availability of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer v 1.0. The Web Platform Installer (Web PI) is a simple tool that makes it very easy to download and install Microsoft's entire Web Platform in one step, including IIS, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework. Using the Web Platform Installer’s user interface, you can choose to install either specific products or the entire Microsoft Web Platform onto your computer. The Web PI also helps keep your products up to date by always offering the latest additions to the Web Platform. Web PI 1.0 supports Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and of course Windows 2008.

Auto-update your Release Candidate build!

One of the cool new features we put into the Release Candidate is the ability of Web PI to upgrade itself. Try it today – if you installed the Web PI RC release in November or December, simply launch the tool again and you will see a prompt indicating that a new release is available. Say “yes” and Web PI will automatically download and install the final release version, and launch it for you!

Install clean

Been waiting for the final product? Wait no longer… if you haven’t tried Web PI yet, today is your lucky day…simply visit http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx and click the “Install Now” button. It will download and install Web PI in one click and away you go. Even if you think you already have IIS and ASP.NET installed, **get this tool** I can almost guarantee you there will be new features available for IIS or ASP.NET that you haven’t seen before..and if there aren’t today, there will be soon.

Get Ready for MIX…

If you think Web PI v1.0 is cool….just wait for MIX. ;)

Now Online: Comprehensive IIS7 Technical Reference

bills — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:33:50 GMT

If you’ve ever tried to find information on how to install a particular IIS7 feature, or how to configure it using the IIS Manager tool, AppCmd.exe, the new Microsoft.Web.Administration interface or WMI provider, this post is for you.

Every IIS7 feature is now comprehensively documented on http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/

This IIS7 Technical Reference provides a list of all the built-in IIS7 features, alphabetized for quick access. If you know the configuration name you are interested in, just type it into the URL…for example if you’re looking for information on the system.webServer <caching> setting, type: http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.webServer/caching and whoila, you now have a complete set of reference material on the subject. Literally hundreds of pages of documentation are now freely available at http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/ and super easy to access.

Each topic has a quick summary of what the feature is, how to install the feature as well as a quick “how-to” article (with pictures) on locating and using the feature inside IIS Manager. Each feature is carefully documented with comprehensive information on the configuration section behind each feature including information on each attribute, it’s type and default value as well as sample configuration. And perhaps best of all, every topic also has sample code for how to use the feature from AppCmd.exe, C#, VB.NET, JavaScript and VBScript! No more scavenging the forums or live search for sample code!

This reference guide could not have happened without a lot of hard work by many, especially Robert McMurray and Pete Harris (the mysterious man behind the iis.net site). Many thanks to them, we hope you enjoy this new section on our community site!

How to Run Windows & IIS in the Cloud on Amazon EC2 (in 15 mins)

bills — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:59:00 GMT

Choices abound for those looking for a place to run Web applications on Windows. The purpose of this blog post is to show a quick walkthrough of how to setup your first Windows computer in the cloud on Amazon EC2. If you’re already familiar with hosting and the cloud, skip the next few paragraphs.

The traditional approach is to use a Windows hosting provider, like DiscountASP.NET, MaximumASP.com, CrystalTech.com, etc. These long-time Windows hosting providers offer a flat monthly fee for shared (Web site) and dedicated server (full server) offerings ranging from a few dollars a month to a few hundred dollars a month. This works great for anyone who wants to set up everything from a simple family or community Web site to a small business or low traffic corporate site that can run on one server. If your site really takes off, and you want to scale it out onto many servers, you can of course pay for additional servers, and for the consulting services of your hoster to setup load balancing and more advanced network topologies. Some Windows hosters will even help you with the management of your new Web farm, which ends up being a complex set of gymnastics to backup your data , balance traffic, and deploy and manage your Web site’s content and code across a set of distributed servers. The cost and complexity of running a Web site on more than one server goes up pretty quickly. And if the traffic to your site grows and shrinks based on events related to your business, you are usually stuck with the high cost of the number of servers required to host your peak load.

New to the game are “cloud hosting” services, including Microsoft’s own Windows Azure (currently available for free in beta form), Mosso’s Cloud Sites, and Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). These cloud computing offerings differ from traditional hosting in several ways. First, they offer a more ‘elastic’ capacity model that can grow and shrink on demand. You tell your hosting provider how much capacity you need, and they automatically ramp up or down the number of servers to meet the demand. The cost of the service is usually based on usage (like your electricity bill – which is why some often refer to this cloud computing as ‘utility computing’). Microsoft, Mosso and Amazon all do this in different ways, and offer a variety of capabilities and features that are unique to each. In some future post I may take the time to review the pros and cons of each, but for now you’ll want to read up on them yourself and decide which is the best for you.

The purpose of this post is to provide a quick walkthrough of how to setup your own EC2 account and run Windows and IIS in about 15 mins. Amazon’s approach to cloud computing will be familiar to anyone who is already running Windows Server themselves, as it essentially offers Administrative access to virtual server instances running on Amazon’s infrastructure. Once you’ve created your first instance of Windows server in EC2, you can log on to your Amazon-based Windows Server via Remote Desktop and install software and manage the server the same way you would if it was running in your home or office. Amazon just released their EC2 Web Console, which makes deploying new instances of Windows Server, and connecting to them, very easy.

How to setup an Amazon EC2 account and launch your first Windows computer in the cloud

Step 1) get a free AWS account. Navigate to http://aws.amazon.com/ Unfortunately, I found a bug in IE7 that prevents some of the console from working properly, so you’ll want to use IE6 or Firefox. If you don’t have an AWS account, click the “Sign up Now” button. If you already have an account, go to Step #6.

Step 2) enter your email address and password, and click “sign in using our secure server”

Step 3) Enter your full name, and your password

Step 4) Enter your contact information, read and accept the license agreement by checking the checkbox at the bottom of the screen.

Step 5) Choose “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud”

Step 6) Click the “Sign up for Amazon EC2” button

Step 7) Review the current pricing. Note to run a Windows Server the cost ranges from $0.125 to $1.20 per instance hour (and more if you include SQL Server). At the bottom of the page, enter your credit card information and click submit.

Step 8) Enter a new address for your billing information, or select the existing address if it is the same.

Step 9) Click the “Complete Sign Up” button at the top of the page to begin.

Step 10) You’ll need a certificate to authenticate with Amazon. If you already have one, click “Upload your…”, otherwise, click “Create a New X.509 Certificate”.

Step 11) Click Yes to generate your certificate

Step 12) Download your private key and certificate files. Keep them in a safe place that is protected from other users, and back them up! When you’re done, click the “AWS Management Console” link on the left.

Step 13) Click the “Amazon EC2” tab. You may need to sign in again.

Step 14) To create a new instance of Windows, click the “Launch Instances” button.

Step 15) There are several pre-built images of Windows available. If you want one with IIS, SQL Express, and ASP.NET pre-installed, choose the first one.

Step 16) You’ll need a key pair in order to securely connect to your instance. Click the “Create & Download your Key Pair” button (note IE7 beta doesn’t like this step)

Step 17) Enter a security group name and description, and click “Continue”. Security groups are the way you configure policy for your Web server. For instance, you can open and close ports on a security group. I created a Webserver security group.

Step 18) Enter the number of instances (virtual machines) you want to create. For testing, I enter (1). I also leave it to “Small” instance type. Select your key pair name and select the security groups you want to associate this instance with (for applying policy, like firewall ports).

Step 19) Amazon will now launch your instance. Click on the “view instances” link.

Step 20) Note the instance is in the “starting” status. Wait 3-5 mins for the instance to be created and to boot.

Notice the “status” has changed to “running”. Click on the instance and choose “password”.

Step 21) you’ll want to remote desktop into your instance, which means you need the Administrative password. By default, Amazon encrypts this password. It takes a few minutes to generate and encrypt it.

Once it is encrypted you’ll be able to click the “password” button again and see the screen below. Open the keypair file you generated in Step 16 and copy + paste it into the private key field below.

Step 22) Write down (or copy into the clipboard) the decrypted password shown. Close the dialog.

Step 23) Click on the “Connect” button and note that port 3389 is not currently opened, which is the port that remote desktop needs. We’ll need to click on “security groups” in order to open it.

Step 24) Click on the security group you created in step 17) and choose “RDP” from the list of protocols below, then click “Save”

Step 25) Now click “Instances” and click the “connect” button for your instance. Note you can download a shortcut file using the link provided, which makes it easy to connect (just double click the file that downloads).

Step 26) Otherwise, fire up Remote Desktop and enter the computer name for your Amazon EC2 instance. Log in as Administrator using the password provided.

Step 27) The remote computer has an automatically generated certificate that is not automatically identified. Click “View Certificate”

Step 28) To install the certificate to your computer, click “install certificate” and follow the wizard.

Step 29) you should now be connected. Enter your Admin credentials from Step 22.

Step 30) Open up IIS Manager and start creating your Web site!

Step 31) You should also visit http://microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx and install the Microsoft Web PI tool, which helps you get all the latest extensions and update in one place.

You’ll notice that Amazon currently only has Windows 2003 available, which means that it isn’t yet possibly to run IIS7! If you’re like me, this is a real bummer as IIS7 has so many cool new features. Please send Amazon a note letting them know you would like to see Windows 2008 available on EC2!

Start-up your Web business with Microsoft BizSpark

bills — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:07:18 GMT

Starting up a Web business, especially in this economy, isn’t easy. Microsoft wants to make it easier. A few weeks ago we announced Microsoft BizSpark, a new program specifically for Web start-ups which makes it very easy to get access to the latest versions of Windows, SQL, Visual Studio – with full Microsoft support – very easy and absolutely free to get started!

What do I get with BizSpark?

Software

All the software included in the Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN Premium subscription Expression Studio (Version 2), plus VSTS Team Foundation Server Standard Edition - for the entire development team
Production license use rights, to deploy, host and support Startup’s "software as a service" applications for delivery over the Internet, using the following products: Windows Server (all versions), SQL Server (all versions), BizTalk Server, and Office SharePoint Server for hosting; and Systems Center for managing hosting server operations.

Support

Guidance, resources and mentoring provided by Network Partners, active members of the global software ecosystem who are qualified to provide support and advice to Startups
Access to MSDN Premium: managed newsgroups, online library, online concierge, etc.
Two technical support Incidents per Startup

Visibility

Each BizSpark Startup will have the opportunity to profile their company in the BizSparkDB, an online Startup directory, hosted on the Microsoft Startup Zone web site. Startups will get exposure to potential investors, partners and customers around the world.
Opportunity to be highlighted on the BizSparkDB as a featured company and be promoted as BizSpark Company of the Week on the Microsoft Startup Zone website.

How to qualify?

If you meet these three simple criteria, you can sign-up today:

Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business^[1],
Privately held, and in business for less than 3 years^[2], and
Less than US $1 million in annual revenue^[3].

What happens after three years of participation in BizSpark?

In addition to responsibility for the USD$100 program offering fee, Startups can continue to use the development tools they previously obtained through the program. If Startups wish to continue to receive updates to development tools, Startups can renew their MSDN subscription at usual rates and terms. To continue to use the production licenses, Startups may choose to take advantage of a licensing program like Microsoft’s Services Provider License Agreement program (or other Microsoft licensing programs that may be available at the time), but are in no way obligated to do so.

How do I get a sponsor?

In order to protect the program from abuse, Microsoft has put in place a sponsorship requirement. Finding sponsorship couldn’t be easier, the current list of sponsors is included in the sign-up process. If you don’t already belong to one of the existing sponsorship organizations, I can sponsor you! Just contact me through the ‘contact me’ link and I’ll be happy to help you.

How easy is it to sign-up?

It is really easy, I did it in less than 5 minutes. Here are the steps:

1) Go to http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ and click “Join BizSpark now!”

2) Sign in with your Live ID or create a new Live ID

3) Click the “I Accept” check boxes, and enter your enrollment code (If you don’t already have a sponsor, contact me and I’ll help you get started!)

4) Provide us some basic information about your start-up

5) Identify your primary contact

6) You’re done!!! Now you can manage your BizSpark account from here. Note your BizSpark Subscription ID (blanked out in red). One of the things you’ll want to do next is activate your MSDN subscription using this ID. You’ll need to do this in order to start downloading the software.

7) To activate your MSDN subscription, visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/add/default.aspx and enter your name, email and the BizSpark subscription ID from the previous page, click the “I acknowledge and accept” checkbox and submit ‘OK’. (Note, it may take 4-6 hours for your MSDN subscription to become available after signing up for your BizSpark account. If MSDN doesn’t find your subscription, check back later.

8) Once you’re up and running you may want to find a Windows hoster who can work with you and your production use licenses to offer your low-cost, discounted hosting services. Through the BizSpark Start-up page you can click the “Manage Hoster Relationship” and find hosters in your country which are part of the program.

Have questions? Leave me a comment. You may also want to check out the BizSpark FAQ: http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/BizSpark/Pages/FAQ.aspx

Microsoft Web Platform Installer Release Candidate – Now works with XP and Windows 2003!

bills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:32:00 GMT

I’m excited to announce the availability of the Release Candidate version of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI). **Update 1/20/2009 - the final v1.0 release is now available!**

Web PI is a free tool that makes it simple to download and install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer Express and SQL Server, along with a lot of cool IIS extensions like URL rewrite and ASP.NET MVC.

Web PI offers a simple experience for downloading and installing the entire stack through a single installer to help you obtain the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform, whether you are using Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008.

Run Web PI to get started, and then run it again anytime to check for new extensions to the platform. Every time Web PI is run it checks online to ensure the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform are downloaded. Give Web PI a try today!

ASP.NET supported on Server Core - Windows Server 2008 R2

bills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:18:11 GMT

In case you haven’t already heard the news, ASP.NET will now be enabled on Windows Server Core starting with Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you're not familiar with Server Core, it is a low footprint Server installation option that lays down just the minimal footprint to boot up the server, it doesn't even install the Shell! This has several key benefits. First, it means server core uses less disk and memory footprint. In our testing, we see a little over 1GB disk footprint and the server runs well starting with just 512MB ram! Of course, fewer features also means a lower attack surface and less frequent patching, as well as fewer things to manage.

When I announced IIS7 on Server Core supported last year, it came with a big caveat: no ASP.NET support, since the .NET framework itself was not available on Server Core. Fortunately the .NET framework and Windows teams have done the work needed to make that possible. Look for a beta coming soon…

Why IIS7? Top 12 cool features…

bills — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:13:45 GMT

Every time I talk with customers in meetings or at conferences I’m struck by how many cool amazing new capabilities IIS7 has. I can go on for literally hours talking about the new features and benefits, and showing demos. And with each new IIS7 Extension, the list of new features just gets bigger and bigger. A few months ago I realized we didn’t have the top list of features written up anywhere, and so we started the process of distilling down the list to the top 10. We almost made it! We ended up with the top 12 reasons you should get IIS7 today. Check them out here:

http://www.iis.net/getstarted

Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding a cool demo for each of the reasons to show the features in action. Be sure to check back soon!

IIS7 Request Routing and Load Balancer Release Candidate Available for Download

bills — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:38:03 GMT

I’m excited to announce that IIS has released a Release Candidate of the new IIS7 Application Request Routing (ARR) extension! ARR enables Web server administrators to easily scale-out Web applications and improve reliability through HTTP-level, rule-based routing and load balancing. Read more about the cool new features in this new release and check out the updated documentation.

Download the RC release:

For those who are new to IIS7’s ARR module, here are the benefits it provides:

Balance loads more efficiently across servers to maximize resource utilization

By taking advantage of Application Request Routing, administrators have the ability to create powerful routing rules based on URL, HTTP headers and server variables to determine the most appropriate Web application server for each request. ARR makes request routing decisions at the application level, and can be used in conjunction with hardware load balancers as an added layer of control over HTTP requests. For example, using the Application Request Router, administrators are able to route all *.aspx requests to a dynamic group of dedicated Web application servers, which can scale up and down based on traffic demands, while requests for video content, images, javascript and other static content can be served from the ARR machine, or a separate group of servers.

Increase Security and Scalability of Application Servers

Administrators can use IIS7 and the Application Request Routing feature on a reduced-footprint Windows Server core machine(s) to handle incoming requests, and then place traditional Web Application Servers on a middle tier of machines, which can protected behind additional firewalls and not exposed directly to the internet. This protects feature-rich Web application servers from being directly exposed to internet hacking attempts, and enables to scale-out cpu-intensive Web application servers independently.

Manage and monitor multiple server farms more easily through IIS Manager

ARR lets administrators create, manage, and apply load balancing rules to server farms in IIS 7.0 Manager. Administrators can then easily add or remove servers from a server farm to match demand without impacting application availability. ARR also includes live traffic and URL test monitoring capabilities to determine the health of individual servers and configuration settings, while allowing administrators to view aggregated runtime statistics in IIS 7.0 Manager.

Optimize and scale server capacity through client and host name affinity

Administrators can use ARR to route all requests from a specific client to a specific Web application server in a server farm by creating an affinity between the client and server. ARR includes the ability to differentiate clients behind Network Address Traversal (NAT) firewalls and hardware load-balancers, so each client is treated independently. Host name affinity lets hosting providers optimize resources per server and offer scaled solutions by routing requests to servers based on host name.

Features

HTTP based routing decisions built using rules that examine HTTP request information
Sophisticated load balancing algorithms to determine appropriate servers to service the HTTP requests
Health monitoring for live traffic and specific URLs to determine the health of servers with a set of configuration parameters provided to calibrate baseline server health
Client affinity to direct all requests from a client to a specific server by using cookies.
Host name affinity to streamline administration for Web servers and to create additional business opportunities.
Management of multiple server farms to enable pilot management and A/B testing scenarios.
Management and monitoring of all configuration settings and aggregated runtime statistics through IIS Manager interface.
Support for Failed Request Tracing Rules

Find New IIS7 Extensions at http://www.iis.net/extensions/

bills — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:55:00 GMT

I’m happy to announce that IIS7 Extensions have found their home at http://www.iis.net/extensions

Every since IIS7 shipped 9 months ago, the IIS team has been cranking away adding new features to the platform. Last time I blogged about how we do this, I realized we didn’t have a single place to learn about all of them, so I kicked off an effort within the team to create this. Now that the pages are up, it is amazing to see how many new capabilities are already available on top of IIS7…which all by itself had more new features than any other IIS release in the history of the product. It is a testament to not only the ingenuity and hard work of the IIS team, but a real validation that IIS7 is not just a Web server, it is a server platform. All of these new features are built on top of public extensibility points that any developer can use, and provide a seamless runtime, configuration and administration experience that looks and feels like they were built into the product to begin with! Here they are:

Landing page: http://www.iis.net/extensions

http://www.iis.net/AdministrationPack

http://www.iis.net/ApplicationRequestRouting

http://www.iis.net/BitRateThrottling

http://www.iis.net/DatabaseManager

http://www.iis.net/FTP

http://www.iis.net/IISManager

http://www.iis.net/PowerShell

http://www.iis.net/SmoothStreaming

http://www.iis.net/URLRewrite

http://www.iis.net/UrlScan

http://www.iis.net/WebDeploymentTool

http://www.iis.net/WebPlaylists

http://www.iis.net/WebDAV

Check out the more than a dozen new features available today! Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding video demos of each feature and more new content. Stay tuned for many cool new features to come!

IIS7 URL Rewrite Extension is finished – download now!

bills — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:04:56 GMT

I’m excited to announce that the IIS7 URL Rewrite extension is finished and available for download. For more information on some last minute features we added, and how to download it, see Ruslan’s blog post here: http://blogs.iis.net/ruslany/archive/2008/11/10/url-rewrite-module-release-to-web.aspx

Many, many, many customers have asked me for URL Rewrite capabilities over the years, and I’m happy to finally provide a high performance, reliable, and fully supported solution from Microsoft. URL Rewrite has many very cool features for Web applications and makes managing URL Rewrite rules easier to create and manage than any other solution out there. If you have IIS7, and you care about having clean URLs that search engines love to index, you need URL Rewrite. Download it today!

Apache Emulation for IIS by Helicon Tech

bills — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:41:57 GMT

Now this is something you don't see every day! I ran across Helicon Tech's latest IIS module today, called Helicon APE, which stands for Apache Emulation. This looks like a very cool module for those who want to ‘emulate’ Apache’s runtime environment, including more than a dozen modules, as well as direct .htaccess support, inside IIS! It takes full advantage of the integrated pipeline of IIS7, by providing a managed code module that extends IIS7’s core processing pipeline and provides semantic emulation of some very popular Apache features! Not yet running IIS7? Helicon also supports using wildcard script-mapping to enable the module on Windows 2003/IIS6 platforms

The list of modules currently supported is quite impressive, including:

mod_auth_basic
allows the use of HTTP Basic Authentication

mod_auth_digest
allows the use of MD5 Digest Authentication

mod_authn_anon
configures anonymous users access authenticated areas

mod_authn_default
rejects whatever credentials if no authentication is set

mod_authn_file
provides authentication based on user look-up in plain text password file

mod_authz_default
rejects any authorization request if no authentication is configured

mod_authz_groupfile
allows or denies access to particular areas of the site depending on user group membership

mod_authz_host
allows access control to particular parts of web server based on hostname, IP address, or other characteristics of the client request

mod_authz_user
allows or denies access of authenticated users to portions of the web site

mod_core
implements core features of Helicon Ape

mod_env
allows control of the environment provided to CGI scripts and SSI pages

mod_expires
allows setting of Expires HTTP header and max-age directive of Cache-Control HTTP header in server responses in relation to either the time the source file was last modified, or to the time of the client access

mod_headers
enables modification of HTTP request and response headers

mod_proxy
implements forward and reverse proxy functions for your IIS server

mod_rewrite
allows rewriting of requested URLs on the fly based on regular-expressions-based rules and various conditions

mod_setenvif
allows setting environment variables depending on whether different parts of the request match specified regular expressions

mod_so
emulates loading modules functions

See the compatibility chart on their Web site for more specifics. Download the beta release and check it out today!