Customizing your installation for your environment
Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0's numerous features can often overwhelm
users familiar with IIS 3.0 or other Web servers. Two of the biggest concerns
many users struggle with are how to properly set up IIS 4.0 and how to use IIS's
built-in or add-on tools to resolve application problems. For example, you can
easily omit a feature when you're installing IIS that you might need later. And
if you're familiar with IIS 3.0, you can easily overlook many of IIS 4.0's new
and helpful features, such as the debugging tools. I want to tackle these
concerns this month by focusing on IIS setup and configuration. Specifically,
I'll show you what you need to do during the IIS setup to use FrontPage and
Visual InterDev with IIS and how to configure IIS to use Active Server Pages
(ASP).
Setting Up IIS for Your Needs
The first step in using IIS 4.0 is to make sure you properly use the setup
process to install the software. If you don't select the options you need during
the setup process, your Web applications or Web sites might not work. Let's look
at the IIS setup options.
Minimum. The Minimum option minimizes the amount of disk
space IIS consumes and installs only the components required to run ASP
applications and to provide database connections with ActiveX Data Objects
(ADOs) and Remote Data Services (RDSs). This option also installs the Internet
Service Manager (ISM) snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to
manage IIS.
Typical. The Typical option loads the same components as
the Minimum option. In addition, this option installs the FTP service, the HTML
version of ISM for Web-based IIS management, and the online documentation.
Custom. The Custom option lets you decide which components
you want to install. When you select this option, you can specify the
destination of the installation files and see how much disk space each component
consumes. You can also choose to install part or all of the components. For
example, you might want to install all the options for Microsoft Transaction
Server (MTS).
When I install IIS, I always use the Custom option because the other two
options make assumptions about how I want to set up the system. I prefer to
review each component and choose the ones I need to meet my requirements.
Likewise, you need to select and install the components that are right for your
environment. For example, if you use FrontPage or Visual InterDev with IIS 4.0,
you must install the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions that come with IIS and the
Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack. Screen 1, page 180, shows the NT 4.0 Option Pack
Setup dialog box with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions selected. If you
install and enable FrontPage 98 Server Extensions for your entire Web server,
you can always use MMC to turn them off later for a particular Web site.
If you use Visual InterDev with IIS, you need to use the Custom option
during IIS 4.0 setup to install the Visual InterDev rapid application
development (RAD) Remote Deployment Support component. If you don't add this
component, your users won't be able to use some of Visual InterDev 6.0's
deployment features, such as remotely installing ActiveX components or MTS
packages.
You must use the Custom option to install other optional components,
including support for MTS and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ). Although
the Minimum and Typical options install some MTS- or MSMQ-related components,
these options don't include all the detailed components you need. Make sure you
know every option that you install.
The IIS setup process can take between 35 minutes and 1 hour, depending on
which components you install, how many applications you have on your Web server,
and how many files each application has. You can safely upgrade an IIS 3.0
installation to IIS 4.0, although you must take the server offline while you
perform the installation.
Configuring Specific Web Applications
After you install IIS 4.0, you can use several configuration options to
customize the software. For example, you can use these options to control ASP
for an entire Web server, a virtual directory, or a particular directory. When
you create a virtual directory, you are mapping the virtual directory to a
physical directory. To create a virtual directory, you right-click Default Web
Site in ISM, and select New, Virtual Directory from the context menu. This
process starts the New Virtual Directory Wizard. The first screen of the wizard
contains the permissions for the new virtual directory. If the directory will
contain ASP, you must select the Allow Script Access check box or Allow
Execute Access [includes Script Access] check box for the scripts to
execute. You might want to clear the Allow Read Access check box to stop
anyone from reading the contents of the script files. You can use the
application's properties dialog box to change the same application permissions.
Previous
Register
