New Manageability Features

   

The typical Internet Web site no longer operates on just one server. Web sites now spread across multiple Web servers or across Web farms . (Web farms are clusters of servers that are dedicated to delivering content, business logic, and services.) Even intranet sites, especially those delivering Web-enabled line-of-business applications, have increased in number as businesses and organizations are delivering more applications over the Web.

In addition, as remote administration has become more common, there has been an increasing demand for improved API access as well as improvement in direct configuration support. With the Internet and intranet changes over the past few years , managing a Web site is no longer as simple as managing one or a few Web servers from an office but has become an integrated and complex process.

IIS 6.0 introduces new features to improve the administration capabilities for administrators who manage IIS Web sites. IIS 6.0 includes a storage layer replacement of the metabase (configuration store), which allows for direct text editing of the metabase configuration in a robust and recoverable fashion. Furthermore, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) support and improved command-line support enable Web site administration without the use of IIS Manager.

XML Metabase

The metabase is a hierarchical store of configuration values used by IIS that incorporates rich functionality such as inheritance, data typing, change notification, and security. The metabase configuration for IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0 was stored in a proprietary binary file and was not easily readable or editable. IIS 6.0 replaces the proprietary binary file named MetaBase.bin with plain-text XML-formatted files. Here's a brief overview of the XML metabase:

  • The benefits of XML-formatted plain-text metabase files are as follows :

    • Improved backup and restore capabilities on machines that experience critical failures

    • Improved troubleshooting and metabase corruption recovery

    • Capability of being edited directly with common text editing tools

    • Exportability and importability of application configuration at user -specified locations

    • Improved performance and scalability

  • The new XML metabase allows administrators to easily read and edit configuration values directly without having to use scripts or code to administer the Web server. The XML metabase makes it much easier to do the following:

    • Diagnose potential metabase corruption

    • Extend existing metabase schema via XML

    • View and edit current metabase configuration directly in the metabase file while still being 100 percent compatible with existing public metabase APIs and Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI)

  • The new XML metabase also makes strides toward improving performance and scalability. The existing binary metabase will upgrade to the new XML metabase without any problems. The new XML metabase has the following:

    • Comparable or smaller disk footprint

    • Faster read times on Web server startup than the IIS 5.0 binary metabase

    • Write performance equivalent to that of the IIS 5.0 binary metabase

  • The new XML metabase addresses manageability concerns by enabling the following scenarios:

    • Direct metabase configuration troubleshooting and editing in a robust fashion

    • Reuse of rich-text tools, such as windiff , version control systems, and editing tools

    • Configuration rollback

    • Versioned history archives containing copies of the metabase for each change

    • Web site and application configuration cloning

    • Server-independent backup and restore

ADSI schema and schema extensibility will continue to be supported. A human-readable , human-editable schema supports ADSI and enhances human readability and editability of the text format. A new IIS 6.0 configuration has been added to the metabase and exposed to ADSI so you can take advantage of new features through existing scripts and tools:

  • Automatic versioning and history.

    The metabase history feature automatically keeps track of changes to the metabase that are written to disk. When the metabase is written to disk, IIS marks the new MetaBase.xml file with a version number and saves a copy of the file in the history folder. Each history file is marked with a unique version number, which is then available for the metabase rollback or restore process. The metabase history feature is enabled by default.

  • Edit while running.

    IIS 6.0 allows the administrator to edit the MetaBase.xml file while IIS is running. New configuration selections can easily be added by opening MetaBase.xml in Notepad, for example, and typing in the new configuration for a new site or virtual directory or editing an existing configuration.

  • Import and export configuration.

    IIS 6.0 introduces two new Admin Base Object (ABO) methods : Export and Import . These methods allow the configuration from any node level to be exported and imported across servers. Secure data is protected by a user-supplied password similar to the new backup/restore support. These new methods are also available to ADSI and WMI users and through IIS Manager. Using Export and Import , administrators can complete the following tasks :

    • Export one node or an entire tree to an XML file from any level of the metabase

    • Optionally export inherited configuration

    • Import one node or an entire tree from an XML file

    • Optionally import inherited configuration

    • Password-protect secure data

    • Optionally merge configuration during import with existing configuration

  • Server-independent backups .

    In IIS 6.0, a new Admin Base Object (ABO) API is available for developers to back up and restore the metabase with a password. This allows administrators and developers to create server-independent backups.

    The session key is encrypted with an optional user-supplied password during backup and is not based on the machine key. When backing up the metabase, the system encrypts the session key with the password supplied by the user. During the restore operation, the supplied password decrypts the session key, and the session key is reencrypted with the current machine key.

    This new restore method can also restore backups made with the old backup method, and it follows the same behavior the old restore method uses when a session key cannot be decrypted. WMI and ADSI support these methods. The existing metabase backup/restore user interface also uses the new backup/restore method.

IIS WMI Provider

Windows 2000 introduced a new means of configuring the server and of gaining access to important pieces of data such as performance counters and system configuration ”Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). To leverage WMI capabilities such as query support and associations between objects, IIS 6.0 now has a WMI provider that provides a rich set of programming interfaces that offer more powerful and flexible ways to administer your Web server. The IIS WMI provider provides functionality similar to that of the IIS ADSI provider for editing the metabase.

The goal of the IIS WMI provider is to provide manageability of IIS at a level of functionality equivalent to the IIS ADSI provider and to support an extensible schema. Specifically, this requires a WMI schema that is congruent with the IIS metabase schema. While they may differ in ways specific to the respective object and data models for ADSI and WMI, the two offer equivalent functionality. In other words, a script written for a task using the ADSI model could also be written using the WMI model. The effects on the metabase would be equivalent. Likewise, any schema extensions done through ADSI are reflected in the WMI provider automatically. If a change is made to the schema in ADSI, that change is pushed into the IIS WMI provider.

Command-Line Administration

IIS 6.0 now ships supported scripts in the Windows\System32 directory that can be used to administer an IIS 6.0 Web server. These scripts, written in Visual Basic scripting language, use the IIS WMI provider to get and set configuration within the metabase. These scripts are designed to do many of the most common tasks facing a Web administrator from the command line without having to use a user interface. IIS 6.0 ships supported command-line administration scripts for the following tasks:

  • Iisweb.vbs.

    Create, delete, start, stop, and list Web sites

  • Iisftp.vbs.

    Create, delete, start, stop, and list FTP sites

  • Iisvdir.vbs.

    Create and delete virtual directories, or display the virtual directories of a given root

  • Iisftpdr.vbs.

    Create, delete, or display virtual directories under a given root

  • Iisconfg.vbs.

    Export and import IIS configuration to an XML file

  • Iisback.vbs.

    Back up and restore IIS configuration

  • Iisapp.vbs.

    List process IDs and application pool IDs for currently running worker processes

  • Iisext.vbs.

    Configure Web service extensions

Web-Based Administration

Using the Remote Administration (HTML) Tool, administrators are able to remotely administer IIS across the Internet or an intranet through a Web browser.


   
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Introducing Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Introducing Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003
ISBN: 0735615705
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 153

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