Lego Set & IIS7 - Componentization Rules!
In a recent webcast, I talked about how nice it is to have a componentize Web server. It is more important for IT Professionals because nothing is more frustrating than having to patch, patch, and do more patching. When our server, hopefully soon after Longhorn Server, gets true componentization of the Web sku it will be an awesome accomplishment. For now, I will live with putting specialized IIS Web servers with minimal components on the internet, extranet, or heck the intranet where we have long dominated - with pleasure. I spent an hour talking about the 40+ modules that comprise IIS, mostly native modules, and showed how we could strip them from our running processes.
Inside IIS7's Componentization
IIS 6.0, don't get me wrong, was a rockin' Web server and if you aren't running IIS 6.0 right now - well shame on you. IIS 5.0 was the pseudo-dominant Web server for a couple years until Windows Server 2003 shipped - for good reason. The rest is kinda history...
The one thing to understand about IIS 6.0 is that, albeit secure as heck, it still has a pretty big footprint. It doesn't offer you the ability to really scale back the number of modules running in the process. Instead, it just turns off features by default to ensure that they can't execute. It doesn't guarantee against vulnerabilities *if* the scenario is right because it does allow the binary to be executed because it is loaded in the worker process. Use Microsoft's (formerly systernals) Process Explorer to see the difference, just like I did in this webcast. IIS7 is slim, efficient, and flexible - and absolutely extensible. You don't believe me... try it for yourself!
View the Webcast online or Download
If you don't know about IiS7's componentization - learn today. It is a fundmental reason to start your development & deployment plans for our next generation Web platform.
View Putting Together the Lego Set - Inside IIS7's Componentization Online
Download the Powerpoint
For some, the time isn't available to spend ~60 minutes watching the webcast. This is certainly understandable and so to help I am including the powerpoint for download. Also, you might check out another reference on the same topic here on IIS.NET - IIS7 Module Overview.