Managing IIS 4.0 with the Microsoft Management Console

Microsoft lets you plug inthe tools you need

We've all been waiting for Microsoft to release Windows NT 5.0, with all itsnew features and tools. With the new release, NT's management tools will seesome welcome changes. One new tool that's already making news is the MicrosoftManagement Console (MMC). The MMC provides a new plug-in framework andExplorer-like interface for managing tools. Most of NT 5.0's management toolswill plug into the MMC. So imagine how surprised I was after I downloadedInternet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 to discover that this latest version ofMicrosoft's Web server uses the MMC as its management interface.

But the surprises don't end there--IIS 4.0 and the MMC together providemany new features. (Keep in mind that I prepared this article with IIS 4.0 Beta2. Most of the features will stay the same in the final release, but you canexpect some changes.) When I began exploring the MMC interface, I turned upseveral uses for IIS 4.0. For example, you can now create multiple Active ServerPages (ASP) applications under one virtual root. You can also set many optionsat the virtual root level, instead of globally, for your entire Web server.

The MMC functions the same way as Developer Studio, which provides the hostenvironment for Visual InterDev, Visual C++, and Visual J++. The components areObject Linking and Embedding (OLE) servers that conform to the MMC model.Microsoft, third-party providers, and anyone else who develops an applicationconforming to the MMC standard can develop snap-in components.

The snap-in design of MMC tools is interesting. Developers can build asnap-in that runs within the MMC only or that runs both within the MMC and as astandalone program. This functionality provides a framework that third-partyvendors can use for building applications that work in a traditional manner andalso work as part of the MMC.

Getting Started with the MMC
You can start the MMC from the Start menu by selecting Internet InformationService Manager from the Programs, Internet Information Server menu. The MMCinterface appears with its Explorer-like look and feel, as you see in Screen 1,page 140.

After I opened the MMC, I created a new window. The MMC interface lets melook at components of the Web server in one window (shown as ConsoleRootIIStopgun in the upper part of Screen 1) and a particular virtualdirectory (e.g., ExAir, as shown in the lower part of Screen 1) in anotherwindow. Notice how the title bar shows the full path to the object you arecurrently working with. As with NT Explorer, you can display windows indifferent ways, such as tiled or manually sized. You can also close any windowsyou are not using.

The left pane of each window you open is the Scope pane for that window. TheScope pane includes the namespace of all components that the current MMC sessioncan manage. The Scope pane contains components such as IIS, and has links to Websites, folders, and other items. You can toggle the Scope pane on and off byright-clicking an object and selecting Scope Pane from the context menu.

The right pane of each window is the Results pane. When you select an itemin the Scope pane, the MMC displays the details for the item in the Resultspane. Screen 2, page 140, shows a good example of the MMC in action. This screenshows the usual Scope pane, but the Results pane shows the home page ofMicrosoft's Web site (http://www.microsoft.com). To display this result, Iright-clicked the IIS folder in the Scope pane and selected Create New. I thenselected Link to Web Address and entered the URL I wanted to link to. After Ientered Microsoft's URL and closed the dialog box, the MMC added thewww.microsoft.com entry to the IIS node in the namespace shown in the Scopepane. When I clicked this new link, Microsoft's Web site appeared in the Resultspane for browsing--cool.

In addition to Web links, you can add other items to the namespace in theScope pane. Right-click in the Scope pane, and select the Create New submenu,and you can add an MMC folder and ActiveX controls. MMC folders act ascontainers that hold other folders and ActiveX controls. After a few minutes ofusing the MMC, you can quickly see how it becomes the center of your managementworld. You can add tools, folders, Web sites, and more into the MMC, resultingin a complete set of information for a particular task at your fingertips.

The Action and View buttons below the main MMC button bar let you accessthe commands that you want to use on your objects. Other buttons in the MMCprovide quick access to other functions. For example, buttons to the right ofthe Delete and Key Manager buttons in Screen 1 let you access NT tools such asPerformance Monitor and Event Viewer. This functionality is where MMC's powercomes into play. Imagine you're working in the MMC and you want to monitor yoursystem's performance with Performance Monitor--one click and Performance Monitoris running.

The MMC presents its services through an intuitive GUI--you no longer haveto slog through many levels of hierarchical menus to find the option you need.Once you get used to the look and feel of the MMC, you will find all the optionsfor performing tasks and changing settings for tools such as IIS or MicrosoftTransaction Server (MTS). Right-clicking any object in the MMC usually brings upa context menu for that object, and the Properties option on the context menulets you access settings for that object. For example, to access the propertiesfor IIS, right-click the application name. Select the Properties option from themenu, and you will see the settings for IIS.

You can save the current settings for the MMC at any time by clicking theSave button on the toolbar or selecting Save from the File menu in the main MMCwindow. The MMC saves its settings in an .msc file. If you look at the title barin Screens 1 and 2, you see that the MMC is using the file iis.msc. Thisfilename is the default for MMC after you download IIS 4.0. By default, IIS 4.0places its MMC files in the WinntRootSystem32InetSrv folder.

The MMC file stores the current settings for your MMC workspace just likemany other NT tools. When you select Internet Service Manager from the Programsmenu, you are selecting a shortcut, which executes the following command:

This command starts mmc.exe and passes it the full path to the iis.msc file.

You can use different MMC files by opening each file with the Open optionon the File menu or by clicking the Open icon on the toolbar. You can also openan MMC file by double-clicking the filename in Explorer or creating an icon onthe desktop or Start menu for the MMC file. Finally, you can email MMC files orput them on a network share so that everyone can access them.

Managing IIS 4.0 with the MMC
Now that you understand the basics of the MMC's operations, you can begin tolearn how to use the MMC interface to manage IIS. One of the first steps I tookafter installing IIS 4.0 was to create a new Web site. I decided this task wouldbe a good test of the features that the MMC and the IIS snap-in provide.

To start the creation process, I right-clicked the server name in the Scopepane. Next, I selected the Create option, and selected Create New and Web Siteto start the New Web Site Wizard.

The New Web Site Wizard walked me through a series of dialog boxes duringthe Web site creation process. The first dialog box let me enter a descriptionfor the new Web site I was creating. The next dialog box, as you see in Screen3, determined the TCP/IP address and port number for the site (Screen 3 showsthe default values for these settings).

Screen 4 shows the next dialog box, which asked me to enter the name of thesubdirectory for my Web site's home directory. I discovered that thesubdirectory you enter in this dialog box must already exist--the New Web SiteWizard won't create this subdirectory for you.

Next, the New Web Site Wizard asked me to configure access permissions formy Web site, as you see in Screen 5. I checked the Allow Script Access (thedefault options allow only Read access). After I configured the accesspermissions, I clicked Finish to create my Web site. The new Web site appearedin the Results pane when I selected the server's name.

Changing a Site's Configuration
You can change almost any property or parameter you set during installationat some later point. The easiest way to make these changes is to right-click thesite name (in either pane of the MMC), and select Properties from the contextmenu. A Properties dialog box similar to the one you see in Screen 6 appears.Each page in the Properties dialog box lets you set options related to thatparticular page. When you first access the Properties dialog box, you see theWeb Site properties page. You can see from Screen 6 that you can quickly changesome settings, such as the site description and the site's TCP/IP address.

You entered some of the settings on the Properties pages when you createdthe Web site, and other settings are the default values that come with thedefault Web site (a standard Web site that ships with IIS 4.0 and points to anysubdirectories under wwwroot, the default site directory). You can use theProperties pages to modify the default Web site, just like any other site.

Onward and Upward
The new MMC management feature plays a major part in IIS 4.0, but it's by nomeans the only feature. You have to dig into IIS 4.0 to discover additionalfeatures and how they work. Some of these features include

*Integration with other products, such as MTS, Internet News Server, andSite Analyst

*New ASP features, such as the integration with MTS, the new scriptdebugger, and new options for Visual Basic Script

*The ability to create a hierarchy of virtual directories

*New IIS Web site features, such as new options for each site, settings forthe default Web site, isolation of applications, and the handling of FrontPageServer Extensions for each Web site

*The Posting Acceptor, which lets you post information from a browser to aWeb site

IIS 4.0 contains many other options hidden behind the GUI. I'll discuss manyof these options in future articles.