IIS 6.0 Benefits and Features

  • Article

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

IIS 6.0 provides the following benefits and features:

  • Reliability. IIS 6.0 uses a new request-processing architecture and application isolation environment that enables individual Web applications to function within a self-contained worker process. This environment prevents one application or Web site from stopping another, and it reduces the amount of time that administrators spend restarting services to correct application-related problems. The new environment also includes proactive health monitoring for application pools. For more information about application reliability in IIS 6.0, see Ensuring Application Availability.

  • Scalability. IIS 6.0 introduces a new kernel-mode driver for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) parsing and caching that is specifically tuned to increase Web server throughput and scalability of multiprocessor computers. The result is an increase in the following:

    • The number of Web sites that a single IIS 6.0 server can host

    • The number of concurrently active worker processes

    • The performance for startup and shutdown times for the Web server and for individual Web sites

    • The number of simultaneous requests that a Web server can service

    Also, by configuring the startup and shutdown time limits for worker processes, IIS allocates resources to active Web sites instead of keeping resources on idle requests.

  • Security. IIS 6.0 provides significantly improved security over IIS 5.0. For example, to reduce the attack surface of systems, IIS 6.0 is not installed by default on Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition. After installing these products, administrators must manually install IIS 6.0. When IIS 6.0 is installed, it is locked down by default so that it can serve only static content. By using the Web Service Extensions node in IIS Manager, Web site administrators can enable or disable IIS functionality based on the individual needs of their organization.

    IIS 6.0 includes a variety of security features and technologies to help ensure the integrity of your Web and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site content, as well as the data that is transmitted through your sites. These security features and technologies include Advanced Digest authentication, improved access control, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, centralized certificate storage, and detailed auditing capabilities.

    For more information about IIS security, see Securing Web Sites and Applications and Security in IIS 6.0.

  • Manageability. To meet the needs of a diverse set of organizations, IIS 6.0 provides a variety of manageability and administration tools. Administrators can configure an IIS 6.0 server by using IIS Manager, by running administration scripts, or by directly editing the IIS metabase. Administrators can also remotely administer IIS servers and Web sites.

  • Enhanced Development. Compared to Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 offers an improved developer experience with ASP.NET and IIS integration. ASP.NET runs most Active Server Pages (ASP) code while providing greater functionality for building enterprise-class Web applications that can work as a part of the .NET Framework. Use ASP.NET to fully utilize the features of the common language runtime, such as type safety, inheritance, language interoperability, and versioning. IIS 6.0 also offers support for the latest Web standards including XML, SOAP, and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

    For more information about enhanced development of ASP.NET applications, see Deploying ASP.NET Applications in IIS 6.0.

  • Application Compatibility. According to feedback from thousands of customers and independent software vendors (ISVs), IIS 6.0 is compatible with most of their existing Web applications. Also, to ensure maximum compatibility, you can configure IIS 6.0 to run in IIS 5.0 isolation mode.

  • HTTP Compression. To make best use of available bandwidth, IIS 6.0 includes the ability to compress both static content and dynamic content. This results in faster transmission time between compression-enabled browsers and IIS regardless of whether your content is served from local storage or a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) resource. The HTTP compression feature is highly customizable to meet the needs of your organization.