IIS Version Comparison & Architecture

Siva.S — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:01:00 GMT

IIS Version Comparison - An Overview:

We often tend to think specifically about a new feature in a product, as an enhancement against a new version released. Do you think if that is all about releasing a new version? Not really! Well, it is a must to think about feature and also the architecture with design-level changes, with variations on the product-specific system files, which would have been incorporated in the new version.

As many of us are aware of, IIS (Internet Information Service) indeed has come out with a drastic change in the way of handling applications conceptually and practically through In-Process and Out-Process technology.

BTW, What exactly do you mean by In-Process and Out-Process applications? To know about this concept with an in-depth architectural overview, please wait for my successive posts.

For now, I suggest you to take a look at the comparison chart on various IIS versions shared by Microsoft Technet team, which gives you a high-level data on various versions of IIS and their feature specifications.

What I have shared above is just a screenshot of the chart. You may additionally refer to the source link I have mentioned below to gain a copy of the comparison chart from Technet and document it in your process on a need basis. That was to gather an elevated detail about the varied versions and their features, which in-turn, mapped to the terminologies that would be used from this posting onwards. Did not include IIS 7.0 in this comparison analysis, as I have planned to go with dedicated blogs on IIS 7.0. :-)

You may click here to view the content source for this blog and the IIS Comparison Chart.

IIS 4.0 Architecture - An Overview:

Anyone still using IIS 4.0?? Doubt it!? Well, it is all about end-to-end product knowledge. Nothing wrong to know the basics of some technology. :-) ... Hence, let me now share some notes about IIS 4.0 to understand the basic design, which will help us gradually to discuss further about the consecutive releases of IIS product till IIS 7.0.

My thoughts:

Again, I am gonna pick out the source information from Technet - which is indeed a great place to gather technical information. To speak about IIS architecture, we must first need to know the version stand-point. Though we have IIS 2.0, 3.0 - let me start with IIS 4.0 and touchbase on IIS 7.0, being honest with you, my basic knowledge span over from IIS 4.0. :-)

IIS 4.0:

Well, here is something very little which I would like to share on this version of IIS. It is confined to 32 BIT Architecture Model (did we have 64 BIT those days!?) and the Application Isolation Mode was mapped to MTX.EXE. Which means, your application mode, when configured as Out-Process Isolation, the User Mode Memory will be allocated on the executable image MTX.EXE. Whereas, the same MTX.EXE will not be in picture at all, in-case if you go by configuring your application as an In-Process Isolation Mode. In such a situation, the application memory will be sharing the memory space with Inetinfo.exe, which is the back-end process for executing IIS Admin Service. If you refer to IIS 5.0 Architecture (an upcoming blog of mine), I guess you will then be able to visualize on MTX.EXE as compared with DLLHOST.EXE. Ofcourse, many other feature enhancements have been made on IIS 5.0! :-)

For beginners: You will be able to find inetinfo.exe in Start -> Run -> Services.msc -> Properties of IIS Admin Service. If IIS is successfully installed and configured on a Windows OS, you will also find inetinfo.exe as a process in Task Manager of that webserver.

Wanna know more about these terminologies; Out-Process Isolation Mode / In-Process Isolation Mode / User Mode / Kernel Mode Memory Space / IIS 5.0 / IIS 6.0 Architecture?

Suggest you to wait for my next blog on this topic - IIS Memory Management...

Got a thought to share on this aspect? Pls click here... :-)

Cheers,

Siva

Siva's IIS Blog : IIS Version Comparison & IIS 4.0 Architecture Overview

IIS Version Comparison & Architecture