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Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005

Hoster Poster — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:35:00 GMT

If you haven't heard, the new Web SKU is a special, low-priced version of Windows that is focused exclusively on Internet-based Web serving. We've added a lot of new features and support for hardware compared to the old Windows 2003 Web edition. For more details about the SKU, check out Bill Staples' blog post at http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2008/04/15/windows-web-server-2008-and-sql-server-2005.aspx . One thing to note is if you want SQL Server 2005 on Web SKU. The installer blocks on Windows Web Server 2008 but we are providing a patch that will allow you to proceed with the installation. Before attempting to install SQL Server 2005, please download and install the patch from the Download Center page found at: SQL Server 2005 Installer...(read more)

Silverlight apps not working/downloading on IIS 6.0? Try your mime types...

Hoster Poster — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:17:00 GMT

On IIS 6.0, there are no mime types for Silverlight by default (IIS6 was released a good deal prior to Silverlight and as with any type of content, you need to configure your web server to support it)... so you might experience that your app appears to be stuck waiting to download, but in reality it was not able to serve the request due to mime types. Here are instructions in http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/262/silverlight/ , and a handy script, for configuring IIS 6.0 mime types to enable Silverlight. IIS7 on Windows Server 2008 includes the appropriate mime types by default....(read more)

Delegating error messages in IIS 7.0

Hoster Poster — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:07:00 GMT

There are two settings you should be aware of for hosting that relate to delegation of errors. 1. Delegating ASP's scriptErrorSentToBrowser setting: You should definitely turn on the ASP script errors, otherwise your customers won't see the useful errors from Classic ASP that IIS 6.0 showed. What your customers will see is the generic error, “An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator.” This is because detailed ASP error messages are not sent to the browser by default for security reasons. In order to see the details of the error message, you may need to enable sending error messages to the browser. The article http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/209/asp/ explains the steps to safely delegate...(read more)

New web deployment tool is available

Hoster Poster — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:46:00 GMT

Hey everyone, long time since the last blog post but we're still here and we have some great news to report. The IIS team just released the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool on www.iis.net . It is a command-line tool that provides support for deploying, synchronizing and migrating IIS 6.0 and 7.0. It supports moving configuration, content, SSL certificates and other types of data associated with a web server. You can choose to sync a single site or the entire web server. It's pretty flexible, as you'll discover from the documentation. However - it is a technical preview, so it shouldn't be used for production servers and it may change quite a bit before it ships as a finished tool. The team is interested in feedback from the hosting community, so...(read more)

FastCGI makes PHP fast and reliable on IIS

Hoster Poster — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:27:00 GMT

Microsoft has just announced the Go Live release of its FastCGI Extension for IIS 5.1/6.0 (FastCGI Extension). This FastCGI Extension release is supported on IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 for a fully scalable production environment and IIS 5.1 on Windows XP in order to support developers who build their Web applications on Windows client machines. This provides developers easy access to build and deploy a broader range of Web applications on the Microsoft platform. Here's the full announcement for even more information about the release....(read more)

Hosting ASP.NET for .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 in Medium or Partial Trust

Hoster Poster — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:26:00 GMT

If you're hosting the .NET Framework 3.5 (Beta 2) or planning on it, keep in mind there is some additional work required for the Beta 2 bits. The attached document describes two issues (and their corresponding workarounds) when hosting ASP.NET websites using .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 under Medium or partial trust. The issues and workarounds apply only to .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2, and will be addressed in the final version of the product. The first issue is for developers and this section explains what they need to change so they can create partial trust applications in Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. The second issue covers what a hoster needs to enable in Code Access Security on the server in order to host an ASP.NET application in partial trust...(read more)

IIS 7 shared hosting guidance

Hoster Poster — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:26:00 GMT

We're releasing a draft version of our shared hosting guidance for Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0. Currently it covers mainly IIS 7.0 and ASP.NET 2.0, but we will be adding more content for other components. Highlights for shared hosting on IIS 7.0 covered in this document: · Ability to share configuration between multiple servers · Centralized management for servers and web farms · Remote administration for non-administrators · Custom delegation of features for each site or application · Improved performance and security for CGI applications on Windows · Isolated configuration for application pools Specifically, you will learn the recommendations for IIS 7 shared hosting, how to configure remote administration, how to share your server configuration...(read more)

Go live with IIS 7 today!

Hoster Poster — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:24:00 GMT

The IIS team has announced that Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" Server Beta 3 has reached a high level of quality and is ready for your testing. You can test awesome new hosting features in IIS 7 and roll it out for beta hosting. Find out how to get the bits!...(read more)

ASP.NET applications running out of memory?

Hoster Poster — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:40:00 GMT

One thing you can do to help save memory usage is to enable the WorkstationGC. The GC, or garbage collector, manages the memory for appDomains. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911716...(read more)

Microsoft's Hosting Summit 2007 - Day 2

Hoster Poster — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:29:00 GMT

Yesterday was the second day at the Hosting Summit. There are folks from around the world here. We started off with great keynotes from Michael O'Hara and John Zanni, and of course, a hilarious spoof of <a href=" http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1cfb4779-b760-4884-8146-53997c802b65&DisplayLang=en ">Devil Wears Prada</a> from the Exchange team. Highlights include <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D6EF5386-0F76-4F58-A6C6-1FE7B5BE56CA&displaylang=en">WBH 4.5</a> being released and the HMC solution being driven by a new group run by Dave Thompson, with the horizon showing cool things like a migration kit from 3.5 to 4.0. Being a technology...(read more)

Using WMI to change the local administrator password for all servers in an OU or Container

Hoster Poster — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 20:31:00 GMT

Just sharing a nice little script to query all the computers in an OU and change the local Administrator password for each one. One thing to note, if your computers happen to be in the default Computers container, you need to change the LDAP query from "OU=Finance" to "CN=Computers" (CN indicates container). http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/oct04/hey1015.mspx...(read more)

IIS requests could be slower if your log file directory is invalid or offline

Hoster Poster — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:14:00 GMT

If you are pointing your W3SVC log files to a location that is incorrect or goes offline, especially if it is a remote UNC share like \\server\logs – your requests on IIS 6 could be slower. The reason is that HTTP.sys wants to write an entry for each request and there is a delay when it tries to write to an invalid location. This would be even slower if it is an invalid UNC share, since the timeout waiting for a response would be longer. Make sure that your log file directory is valid and that your permissions are valid, allowing the machine account write access to the location. The good news is that this shouldn’t be a problem for IIS 7....(read more)

FPSE on IIS 7 Longhorn

Hoster Poster — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:32:00 GMT

An update from Robert about FPSE: "Because Microsoft realizes that the FrontPage Server Extensions are essential to many web hosting companies, the Internet Information Services product team is researching the development of an updated version of FPSE 2002 that will work with Microsoft Windows codenamed "Longhorn" and Microsoft Windows Vista." http://blogs.iis.net/robert_mcmurray/archive/2007/02/08/frontpage-server-extensions-on-vista-and-longhorn.aspx ....(read more)

Getting 64-bit or 32-bit applications working on IIS 6.0 x64

Hoster Poster — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:28:00 GMT

When running on x64 hardware, you have two options. First, to run in native 64-bit mode. This means all the applications running need to be 64-bit. The second is to run worker processes in 32-bit mode, which means all applications need to be 32-bit. This gives you good compatibility and performance is really good too. Here's how to install the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of ASP.NET, as well as the option you need to run for IIS to get them working. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894435...(read more)

SharePoint v3 templates - the fantastic 40

Hoster Poster — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:48:00 GMT

The new SharePoint templates have arrived. To provide a complete solution, especially for small businesses, SharePoint v3 offers these pre-packaged templates. Each one solves a business problem and offers not only a fully functioning site out of the box, but also allows for customization so you can differentiate what you offer. If you don't have SharePoint in your environment yet, maybe it's time! To get the technical deployment details, read the whitepaper we just blogged about at http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM102157711033 . Download the templates and learn more about them: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/templates/default.mspx . To see the templates in action: Visit http://sharepoint...(read more)