IIS Internet Information Services Installation and Configuration

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS, formerly Internet Information Server) is designed to deliver high speed and secure information publishing, while also serving as a platform for developers and independent software vendors to extend the Internet’s standard communication capabilities.

Internet Information Services is an extensible web server created by Microsoft for use with Windows NT family to run and test the developed application. By default it is not active.

Supports:

       IIS supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP and NNTP.

System Requirements

• How to install Microsoft IIS:

          o   For client editions of Windows: Open Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn                        Windows features on or off.

          o   Windows Operating System greater than Windows XP Home edition.

IIS Express

Microsoft has introduced a lightweight version of IIS called IIS Express it comes by default along with Visual Studio. Normally, while you are developing an application or website, you can use the debugger (F5) to run your solution.

How to check IIS is installed or not?

• Click on the Windows Logo + R.
• Type INETMGR in the Run window.
•  Click ok.
• If IIS is installed IIS manager window will open otherwise not installed.

                                                  (or)

• Open browser and type http://localhost in browser if IIS is installed it opens IIS information.

Configuring IIS

1. Open the IIS management console (shortcut: Start -> Run -> inetmgr).
2. Select Application Pools on the left and locate the application pool that your website/application is running under in the middle. From there, right-click and select 'Advanced Settings'.

•       Ensure that the Managed Pipeline Mode is set to Integrated. We don't use the classic pipeline any more and it shouldn't be used unless you know what exactly the requirement.
•       Now click OK and then OK again. You've now configured the application pool.

    3.   Click on the start button and select Control Panel and click on Programs.

    4.   Click on Turn windows features on or off, under Programs and features option.
          In the windows features, select Internet Information Services and related services 
          click on ok button.

Directory Permissions

As standard practice, all our websites/applications (collectively "sites" from here on forward) are placed in the default IIS hosting directory, i.e. C:\wwwroot\inetpub.

1. Go to the hosting directory using Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click the folder of your site and select Properties
3. In the Security tab, grant the following permissions to the account you have selected in IIS (Network Service for me). If the account is not in the list at the top, make sure that you add it first.

                   o   Modify

                   o   Read & execute

                   o   List folder contents

                   o   Read

                   o   Write

Features:

IIS 6.0 and higher support the following authentication mechanisms:

• Anonymous authentication
• Basic access authentication
• Digest access authentication
• Integrated Windows Authentication
• UNC authentication
• .NET Passport Authentication (Removed in Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0) 
• Certificate authentication
• Client certificate mapping
• IP security
• Request filtering
• URL authorization

To configure a virtual directory in IIS to run asp.net web applications

1. In the IIS Manager window, double click on the IIS server name in the connections section.
2. Expand sites
3. Right click on Default Web Site, and Select Add Application
4. Give an alias name. This is the name you will use in the URL, when connecting to your web application
5. Click the button next to the textbox under physical path. Select the physical web application folder.

Creating virtual directory from Visual studio, on the project properties window

1. Run Visual Studio as Administrator
2. Click on FILE -> NEW -> Web site.
3. Click Templates as Visual C#, .Net framework, web location as HTTP
4. Type project name as http://localhost/projectname
5. Click OK

Performance of IIS

1. IIS serves up static documents a little faster than iPlanet, while Apache lags behind both

Watch this video for better understanding: