Using Commerce Server and IIS
The system administrator, who is responsible for the day-to-day administration of Commerce Server 2000, is typically also responsible for administering Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0.
Although Commerce Server depends on IIS, the relationship between IIS and Commerce Server objects is not strictly hierarchical. The total set of properties that affect a Commerce Server site includes properties that are:
Set at the IIS level only.
Set within Commerce Server only, independent from IIS.
Inherited from IIS.
You use the IIS snap-in to manage Web site access permissions and security, performance, directories and paths, the identification of Web site names, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and ports.
You use Commerce Server Manager to perform the following tasks:
Manage global and site Commerce Server resources, configure Commerce Server-specific properties, configure database connection strings for resources, and add and remove Web servers from an application.
At the Commerce Server application level, specify the IIS application path, IIS Web site, non-secure and secure host names, and IP port and secure IP port. You can also configure properties to enable Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), enable Autocookie mode, and select an authentication filter. These properties apply to all of the Web servers used by the application.
When you change port properties using Commerce Server Manager, the properties are not automatically changed in IIS; you must manually change them in IIS. When you change the port properties in IIS, you must also change them in Commerce Server. The following port properties in IIS are the ones actually used:
At the application level
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port
At each Web server
Internet Protocol (IP) address
Log file path
Log file period
Web server properties are inherited from IIS and stored in the Administration database for ease of access. If you change the properties in IIS, you need to synchronize the Commerce Server Administration database with IIS either by manually updating the new values in Commerce Server Manager, or by clicking the Synchronize Values button on the Web Servers tab in the Application Properties dialog box. For more information, see Configuring an Application.
When you click Synchronize values, Commerce Server copies the properties from IIS at the application level and the properties for all the Web server objects below the application. For the properties at the application level (TCP port and SSL port), Commerce Server reads the values for the first Web server. It assumes that the Web servers have all been configured identically, which must be the case for a Web farm to operate correctly.
At the Commerce Server Web server level, view and change properties for the Internet Protocol (IP) address, log file path, and log file period.
The following figure shows the objects on the IIS and Commerce Server Manager console trees, and the relationships of these objects.
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