Chapter 29 - Advanced Internet Information Services

Chapter 29

The previous chapter examined some basic administration tasks associated with Internet Information Services (IIS) on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server platforms. This chapter explains how to configure the basic WWW and FTP Publishing Services in more detail. It also examines the NNTP and SMTP Services and how to configure them. Finally, it briefly covers remote administration of IIS using Internet Services Manager (HTML).

IIS settings can be configured and its servers, directories, and files can be administered at four different levels. The four levels of administration apply to the WWW, FTP, SMTP, and NNTP services discussed later in this chapter. Those levels are as follows:

• Server-level administration The configuration of those settings that apply globally to all virtual servers on a Windows 2000 server with IIS installed. Server-level settings are inherited by all virtual servers and their virtual and physical directories and files.
• Site-level administration The configuration of those settings that apply to a particular virtual server on the IIS machine—that is, to a particular Web, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP site on the machine. Although server-level settings apply globally to those virtual servers that support Web sites and FTP sites on the machine, each of these virtual servers can also have its settings separately configured at the site level.
• Directory-level administration The configuration of those settings that apply to a particular virtual (or physical) directory located within a virtual server. Although site-level settings apply globally to all virtual (or physical) directories located within a particular Web, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP site, each directory can also have its settings separately configured at the directory level.
• File-level administration The configuration of those settings that apply to a particular file located within a virtual (or physical) directory. While directory-level settings apply globally to all files located within a particular directory, each file can also have its settings separately configured at the file level. These file-level settings override those configured at the directory level and are a subset of the directory-level settings.

Rudimentary configuration tasks can be performed by the various wizards examined in the previous chapter, such as the Web Site Creation Wizard, the Virtual Directory Creation Wizard, the Permissions Wizard, and so on. To fully configure the various aspects of IIS on a Windows 2000 server, you need to use the various Properties dialog boxes for IIS objects. These objects include physical and virtual servers, physical and virtual directories, and files. Each of these types of objects is represented by a node in the console tree of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which—with the Internet Information Services snap-in installed on it—is the main tool for managing and configuring these objects.

Figure 29-1 illustrates the four levels of IIS administration and how settings in Properties dialog boxes are inherited and overridden between these levels. We'll look at these settings later in the chapter, but first, let's take a look at the four administration levels in more detail. For all four levels, we'll focus specifically on the WWW Publishing Service because it has the broadest range of configuration options.

Figure 29-1. The four levels of IIS administration.

Real World

Inheritance of Settings

Settings configured for an object (physical or virtual server, physical or virtual directory, or file) are automatically inherited by objects at lower levels. For example, if you configure an IIS setting at the server level, this setting is inherited (if applicable) by all virtual servers, virtual directories, physical directories, and files relating to IIS. You can override these inherited settings at any particular level, however. For example, you could override the settings for a particular virtual server (Web or FTP site) and all its directories and files, for a particular virtual or physical directory and the files it contains, or for a particular file. Note that once you have manually modified an inherited setting at some level, subsequently changing the setting at a higher level doesn't cause your modification to be automatically overwritten. Instead, you are prompted to decide whether you want to override the modified setting or not.