Manageability Improvements

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Whether you are responsible for one Web server or for many clusters of Web servers, you can find new features and improvements in IIS 6.0 that will make your Web server easier to manage than with previous versions of IIS. For example, changes in the IIS metabase, additions to programmatic administration, logging enhancements, and debugging improvements can help you manage your Web servers more efficiently. From propagating configuration changes across multiple servers to pinpointing the problem in a slow-to-respond Web site, you can administer your Web servers more quickly and easily with IIS 6.0.

Metabase Improvements

The metabase configuration and schema for IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0 were stored in a binary file, which was difficult to read or edit. IIS 6.0 replaces the single binary file (MetaBase.bin), with two XML files, which are named MetaBase.xml and MBSchema.xml. In IIS 6.0, administrators who want to manage IIS by editing the metabase directly can use a simple text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad, to edit MetaBase.xml (the metabase configuration file). Editing the metabase configuration file directly is a good solution for administrators who do not want to use scripts or code to administer IIS, and it is a faster administration solution than using IIS Manager when you are working remotely over a slow network connection. For more information about the IIS metabase, see Working with the Metabase.

Programmatic Administration Additions

Many administrators prefer to manage IIS programmatically by using scripts and batch files, rather than by using IIS Manager, which provides a graphical user interface. Administrators working in an ISP environment with many servers — both local and remote — and thousands of Web sites, can save time by managing IIS programmatically.

IIS 6.0 includes a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider that allows administrators to control services and applications programmatically. In addition, you can still administer IIS programmatically by using Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI) and other custom scripts and batch files. For more information about ADSI and WMI, see IIS 6.0 Administration Scripts, Tips, and Tricks.

Logging Enhancements

You can manage and troubleshoot your Web server more effectively if you understand how to read and analyze log files. In IIS 6.0, logging differs from previous versions in several ways, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the changes before you configure logging on your server.

In IIS 5.0, Inetinfo.exe (a user-mode process) performed all logging. In the redesigned architecture of IIS 6.0, if a request is cached, the response is served from the HTTP.sys kernel-mode cache without passing through Inetinfo.exe or another user-mode component; therefore, HTTP.sys handles most logging in IIS 6.0 (Open Database Connectivity [ODBC] and custom logging are the exceptions) to ensure that responses are recorded.

IIS 6.0 provides the following additional enhancements to logging:

• Substatus error code logging allows you to record substatus error codes for requests that fail (substatus error codes are not returned to the client).

• Centralized binary logging provides a way to record detailed information about all your Web sites but to use a minimum of system resources. For example, you can use a single log file to record data for all your sites.

• HTTP.sys error logging ensures that all errors generated by HTTP.sys can be recorded, including error reasons.

• Remote logging allows you to write log data to a remote share over a network by using a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path.

For more information about IIS logging, see Analyzing Log Files.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting and debugging can be time-consuming tasks for an administrator. To help you troubleshoot effectively, be sure you are aware of the changes and new features in IIS 6.0 and Windows Server 2003 that can make troubleshooting easier. For example, Windows Server 2003 provides a new framework, Enterprise Tracing for Windows (ETW), which you can use for debugging and capacity planning. IIS 6.0 (through ETW) implements several different tracing providers to trace key transitions for an HTTP request, following its progress through the IIS service framework. These tracing providers include HTTP.sys, IIS Web Server, IIS ISAPI Filter, IIS ISAPI Extension, and IIS ASP traces. The information generated by these providers can help you determine where, in the lifetime of a request, a problem is occurring. For more information about troubleshooting, including how to use new and existing features, tools, and techniques with IIS 6.0, see Troubleshooting IIS 6.0.