The IIS Directory Structure

The core components of IIS are stored at %systemroot%\System32\inetsrv. The directory structure under inetsrv is shown in the following table:

Directory	Explanation
ASP Compiled Templates	If you use an ASP template for your site, it is stored here.
History	The history folder for the metabase changes, which allows you to roll back the metabase.
iisadmpwd	Contains ASP pages dealing with IIS Admin authentication.
MetaBack	The default directory for metabase backups.

Note 

For more information on the metabase, see the section 'The Metabase' later in this chapter.

The Administration Web Site

In IIS 6, the administration web site allows you to administer your entire Windows server from a local or remote web browser. The administration web site is located at %systemroot%\System32\ServerAppliance. It runs over SSL on port 8098, by default. To access the administration web site, type in https://machinename:8098 (where machinename stands for the name of the machine you wish to administer) in your web browser's address line.

IIS Help Files

All the help files in IIS 6 have been moved to a central location, along with all other Windows help files. They are located at %systemroot%\help\iishelp. The best way to access IIS help is to choose Help | Help Topics in the MMC.

The Inetpub Directory

The Inetpub directory is the main content directory of IIS. Under Inetpub are all the content directories for each service installed. The default path for the Inetpub directory is C:\Inetpub.

The content directories under Inetpub are shown in the following table:

Directory	Description
AdminScripts	Contains some Visual Basic scripts for use in administering your IIS server
ftproot	The top level directory for the FTP service
mailroot	The top level directory for the SMTP service
nntpfile	The top level directory for the NNTP service
wwwroot	The top level directory for the default web site