Comparison of Administration Methods

So far we’ve looked at four methods for administering IIS 6 machines, both remotely and from the local console: IIS Manager (MMC console), Remote Desktop (Terminal Services), Remote Desktop Web Connection (Terminal Services Web control), and Remote Administration (HTML). I’ll cover Remote Administration in more detail in the next chapter, but let’s compare the other three methods:

• IIS Manager is most useful on an intranet (internal company network) and has the advantage of being able to administer down-level servers as well, including IIS 4, 5, and 5.1. If you work mainly within an enterprise environment and have a mixed network of current and down-level versions of IIS machines, the IIS Manager console is probably your best tool for IIS administration.

• Remote Desktop is particularly useful for managing IIS machines in remote branch offices where no sysadmin is present. It supports up-level administration, allowing you to manage your IIS 6 machines using a Terminal Services client running on Windows .NET Server, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, or Windows 98. This provides a great deal of flexibility for administrators who work with a variety of Windows desktop platforms in their enterprise.

• Remote Desktop Web Connection is essential for administrators who travel and need to be able to access and manage their IIS machines from anywhere using a computer running Internet Explorer.

Whatever your situation as an IIS administrator, there’s a tool available to meet your administration needs!

Challenge

Your enterprise plans to deploy IIS 6 servers for a corporate intranet that will be used by branch offices and mobile employees. Larger branch offices are connected to company headquarters using dedicated T-1 and fractional T-1 connections, while smaller offices and mobile users use dial-up Virtual Private Network (VPN). You are the IIS administrator for your company, but you plan to delegate administration portions of the intranet to department heads at various branch offices and to senior mobile sales professionals. What tools for administering IIS will you provide these individuals with? What preliminary configuration steps will you have to perform on your network, firewalls, and IIS machines in order for these tools to work? What methods do you prefer yourself as administrator for managing your IIS machines, and why? How will the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP make your life easier?