Robert Lucero IIS Testing Blog

IIS 7 Remote Management Virtual Lab

2008-10-16T17:03:54Z

I just ran across this Microsoft ISV Training Course that describes how to enable and use web application remote management. IIS 7's remote management is a really cool way to allow non-administrator users privileges to administer their sites and applications without having to ask a machine administrator to delegated tasks for them. According to the training, the difficulty is listed as 'Advanced' and the target audience is 'Technical', but I'm sure it'll be a breeze for people who frequent...(read more)

IIS 7 Walkthrough: One to One Client Certificate Mapping Configuration

2008-05-23T22:24:10Z

Note: This blog post is now an article in the Learn section of IIS.NET. http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/478/configuring-one-to-one-client-certificate-mappings/ Background: IIS 6 had a User Interface to configure and map one to one certificates for authentication. It allowed users to select the validation client certificate and assign the authorized user credentials. There isn't a similar UI in IIS 7. This walkthrough is designed to instruct users to configure one to one...(read more)

IIS7 Administration Pack and Database Manager Technical Preview 2

2008-05-13T22:44:00Z

Today we have released the IIS7 Administration Pack and Database Manager Customer Technical Preview 2. This is a collection of IIS 7 Manager plug-ins and extensions which we hope that you will find useful. So, what's special about Technical Preview 2? Configuration Editor New locking functionality and visualization of locked items Ability to set configuration settings at any level. Users can now set application and web site settings within ApplicationHost.config easily. Bug Fixes IIS Reports New...(read more)

Clarifying the Confusion: IIS 7 Manager vs. IIS 7 Web Server

2008-04-30T22:26:37Z

This issue has been surfacing on the forums a lot recently, so I think some clarification is in order. The general question that is seen on the message boards is this: I installed IIS7 on Windows XP but it doesn't work. Can anyone help? First, IIS 7 Web Server can't be installed on Windows XP or Windows 2003. It depends on some features that are only found in Vista and Windows Server 2008. Also, the IIS 7 Web Server is now an integrated Windows component and isn't a separate install...(read more)

IIS7 Administration Pack Technical Preview

2008-03-21T16:32:00Z

Yesterday, we released the IIS7 Administration Pack technical preview. This is a collection of extensions to the IIS7 Administration UI which we hope you the customers will find useful.

Here is a quick rundown of the added features:

ASP.NET Authorization Rules UI
ASP.NET Error Pages UI
Configuration Editor - Check out Script Generation
Database Manager - Manage your Database remotely through the IIS7 UI
FastCGI UI
IIS Reports - Don't want to use log parser? Try out the extensibility features here
Request Filtering - Lock down your server using our new UI module

Please note that this is in fact a technical preview and what we really need from everyone is to download it, try it out and leave some feedback. Post your comments here on our blogs and in our Admin Pack forum.

Essential Links:

IIS7 Administration Pack (x86)
IIS7 Administration Pack (x64)

Informational Step-by-Step Guides for Admin Pack

IIS7 Administration Pack Forum - Requires IIS.NET account to post

You can expect to see more postings around how to use these new features as well as some tips and tricks around them. Remember, we need your feedback to improve!

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Manager is Now Available

2008-03-04T17:00:12Z

The final release of IIS 7.0 Manager (a.k.a. Remote Manager for IIS 7.0) is now available.

This tool is pretty cool because it allows you to connect to a remote IIS server and administer it using the same familiar IIS 7 management console found on the server itself.

You can find the appropriate installers here:

X86: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1626

X64: http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1633

The requirements to run are:

Vista Service Pack 1 and Internet Information Services Management Console Installed or...
XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
.Net Framework 2.0

Make sure that you download the correct bit version because the 32-bit version will not install on a 64-bit operating system.

As many of you well know, Vista Service Pack 1 is not widely available at this point. It is available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers, but for a majority of users it is not available. For more information on the public release status of Vista Service Pack 1 please look here:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/02/11/windows-vista-sp1-availability-for-technical-customers.aspx

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Client-Server Extensibilty Notes

2007-05-25T15:37:00Z

This is just an overview of my personal experience with IIS7’s Extensibility capabilities.

I’m breaking this down into 3 sections:

1. Tips and Tricks with the GAC and how to avoid being confused

2. What’s in an Async Call?

3. Advantages of breaking the new module into two separate DLL’s

1: Tips and Tricks with the GAC

This is more about troubleshooting your GAC entry and including your GAC information in the module provider section of administration.config. Recently, I ran into a problem with porting and modifying an experimental module and the GAC information was my sticking point. My problem was registering the module in administration.config.

Here are the steps for making sure your module is in the GAC and in IIS:

1. Follow the steps given in the Extensibility Demos. Specifically, make sure that the binaries are signed and the Post-Build event is:

CALL "%VS80COMNTOOLS%\vsvars32.bat" > NULL

gacutil.exe /if "$(TargetPath)"

2. Use gacutil to determine the information needed for administration.config. For example:

C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL>gacutil /l ExtensibilityDemoMicrosoft (R) .NET Global Assembly Cache Utility. Version 2.0.50727.12Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Global Assembly Cache contains the following assemblies: ExtensibilityDemo, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3a197a7356d6a88, processorArchitecture=MSIL

Number of items = 1

The essential line is the assembly information line. Also make sure that the name of the class and the assembly name match exactly.

3. Figure out the name of the Module Provider class and name it something very clear.

4. Add the new line with the into administration.config in the following manner:

NameSpace.ModuleProviderClassName, AssemblyName, Version, Culture, PublicKeyToken

Now the created module should appear inside of the IIS UI.

2. What’s in an async call?

Again, while developing an experimental module and following the steps used in the demos a stumbled on another point. The demo module makes a single StartAsyncTask call in order to read the config. My experimental module was reading a number of config sections so I decided that instead of having one single call I should make one call per UI section I was displaying. This way if there are any remote failures or timeouts I’ll get some settings. My example had nine individual StartAsyncTasks. This is bad for the following reasons:

1. Every async task takes a thread away from the thread pool. This means I was using nine threads from a limited pool.

2. Only one asynchronous task is supported at a time. If another async task starts the first one will be canceled. I haven’t been able to prove that, but that is something that Carlos explained to me.

3. This method doesn’t take full advantage of Property Bags.

The best practice for accessing multiple config sections is to fill a single property bag.

3. Advantages of breaking the new module into two separate DLL’s.

In the Extensibility Demo Articles it isn’t perfectly clear what is happening with the client and server portions. If these steps are followed literally the resulting project will contain a single DLL. It is important to note that this works, but it limits functionality in remote scenarios.

To create two separate DLLs two separate projects should be created within a Visual Studio Solution. The naming convention around here is <ModuleName>UI for the server component and <ModuleName>UIClient for the client code.

ModuleNameUI Contains: The module provider code (i.e. DemoModuleProvider.cs in the demos), the module service code (i.e. DemoModuleService.cs in the demos) and other code used to interpret the config or server information.

ModuleNameUIClient Contains: The actual module, with appropriate UI code and the Module Service Proxy

Extensibility Module Designer Fun...

2007-04-23T22:38:00Z

... or How to beat the system by having Visual Studio Form Designer create your module forms.

The UI extensibility point is a powerful feature found in IIS7, but one of the more difficult things is designing the layout of the extended module forms. It can become difficult to manage all of the button locations, list view settings and other controls when the page is being initialized without the Visual Studio form designer.

Here is how to use the Visual Studio Forms Designer to create the lay out for your module page:

1. Get a hold of some form of Visual Studio. The express version will work just fine for this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/default.aspx

2. Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Application.

3. Create the form as you would like it shown inside of IIS7.

4. When you’re done right click on the form and select View Code.

5. Right click on InitializeComponent() and select Go to Definition.

6. Open the Windows Form Designer Generated Code region and copy everything inside of Initalize component and the variable names.

IE:

Windows Form Designer generated code

private System.Windows.Forms.Label fileExtensionLabel; private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox textBox1; private System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox comboBox1; private System.Windows.Forms.Label allowedLabel; private System.Windows.Forms.Button okButton;

private System.Windows.Forms.Button cancelButton;

7. On your module page, paste the copied code into an Initalize method and call it within the page constructor.

internal class DemoPage : ModulePage{ public RequestFilteringPage() { this.Initalize(); }…}

8. Test the module. It should show the same controls that were created inside of the Visual Studio forms designer inside of an IIS7 module.

A few designer tips:

- The background color in IIS7 is white and not the control gray.

- Beware of anchoring. The right edge of the module page is actually underneath the actions task pane.

IIS 7 Client Beginner’s Guide:

2007-03-26T22:02:00Z

Note: I had written this only a couple of days after Chris Adams published his great IIS7 Intro Article. You can find that article and the video here: http://blogs.iis.net/chrisad/archive/2007/03/01/getting-started-with-iis-7-0.aspx

IIS 7 Client Beginner’s Guide:

Introduction:

So, you want to turn your box into a web server? There are hundreds of great reasons for doing so. You can learn about all sorts of web development features, create personal blogging spaces and photo galleries, and more! With Vista Ultimate, Professional and Home Premium Editions an enterprise class web server is at your fingertips. Let’s get started!

Prerequisites:

Turning your home machine or home server into a web server is no trivial task. There is a lot of important security information that you as a system administrator should be aware of. Here are two topics you should be familiar with before jumping off the deep end:

1. Windows Security Center’s Firewall

2. Windows Updates

3. LUA and Windows Services

Windows Security Center’s Firewall is the front line defense between your machine and the outside. By design almost all of the ports are closed to outside traffic in order to protect your machine. This poses a slight problem when trying to turn a computer into a web server. In order to make your website available to the outside world you have to add an exception to the Firewall settings. More on that later…

Windows Updates are essential to keeping your computer’s software secure. Keeping your computer updated while running a website should be a top priority. There are two great practices for using Windows Update. The first is updating your machine as soon as you complete installation/reinstallation of Vista. Second, turning on the Update Automatically setting so this can become a Set and Forget feature.

Least-Privileged User Access is a turned on by default and is active even as an administrator in Windows Vista. A great article describing what this actually is can be found at TechNet:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/secnews/articles/lpuseacc.mspx

The Internet Information Service Administration tool can only be run by an administrator. Another important point of which to be aware is that IIS runs as a service and will continue to run unless the administrator explicitly stops it. Closing the IIS Administration UI does not turn off the web service.

Also, consider what sort of website you’re going to run from your home machine. Is this going to be a collection of simple static pages or is your website going to be running slick CGI scripts or web applications? Different websites require different amounts of time paying attention to security bulletins so be aware of what you’re jumping into.

Part 1: Installing IIS

Unless you specifically chose to install IIS as a Windows component during the initial setup, the chances are small that it is currently installed on your machine. So, how do you install IIS?

1. Go to Control Panel – Programs –Turn Windows Features on or off.

2. Scroll down to find Internet Information Services.

3. Click the box next to Internet Information Services and click OK.

4. When the IIS installation is complete open up a web browser and type http://localhost into the address bar.

That’s all there is to it. You should be looking at the default install IIS7 website.

Part 2: Configuring Your First Website

Open up the IIS Manager from the Start Menu. This can be done simply by typing inetmgr into the Start Menu search box in Windows Vista.

This is the IIS Administration UI. It allows administrators to tweak almost everything their web server does. The easiest way to access all the content served for the default web site is by right clicking on Default Web Site in the Connections Frame and clicking Explore. This will bring up the wwwroot folder that contains website’s configuration file and content. For now, this is the root directory for any website hosted by this machine.

Here are the steps for changing Default Web Site’s default document:

1. Click on Default Website in the Connections Frame

2. Double Click on the Default Document module in the Features Pane

3. Remove iisstart.htm from the list of default file name

Now when a web browser attempts to connect to this machine the IIS7 page will no longer be a default option. Make sure that a file exists with one of the default document file names or the web server will give any web browser a Page Not Found 404 Error.

Part 3: Turning the Web Server On and Off

By default the static file handler is turned on and will remain on unless you explicitly stop the service. Other web server capabilities (i.e. ASP.NET) are turned off by default. Turning your web server on and off is important in cases of your web server being compromised, upgrading and maintaining non-static web sites and minimizing your security risk when the web service is not required.

To turn the web server OFF from the IIS Management UI first select the machine node in the Connections Frame. Then click Stop under Manage Web Server in the Actions Task Pane. This will stop the web service for the entire machine.

To stop services to a single web site select that website in the Connections Frame and click Stop under Manage Web Server in the Actions Task Pane. This applies only to the currently selected web site.

Part 4: Opening Up to the Outside World

Windows Firewall blocks the World Wide Web Services port by default (Port 80). With this port blocked, other machines cannot connect to your web server. This severely limits the scope of potential web site viewers. So, in order to show your new web site and server to the outside world you must add an exception to the Windows Firewall.

1. Click Start and type firewall into the Search bar and press enter. (Note: Make sure you select Windows Firewall and not Windows Firewall with Advanced Security)

2. Click Change Settings

3. Click the Exceptions Tab and Scroll to World Wide Web Services (HTTP).

4. Click the check box and click OK.

Now your machine is accessible to the outside world. You can connect to your machine by typing in the IP address of your server into another machine’s web browser.

Hello World.

2006-10-03T23:37:00Z

This is my first blog post on blogs.iis.net. Here is some information about myself:

I am a new grad hire to the IIS UI test team. My current offical title is SDET Trainee because I am a part of the Test Apprentice Program where Microsoft takes non-CS grads and teaches us fundamental programming and software testing practices. I graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Physics and wrote my senior thesis on a rare Kaon decay mode (shameless writing plug: http://hep.uchicago.edu/~rjlucer/documents/thesis_NEW.pdf).

My plan for this blog for the next nine months is to write about interesting UI tips and tricks in my feature areas, showing off some of my course code that I find particularly interesting and posting on new things that I learn about IIS in general.