What Are the Tools for Operations?

Article
11/12/2009

For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.

When maintaining a Commerce Server 2007 deployment, you use various tools for managing the different areas of functionality in a deployment. For example, you use Commerce Server Manager to perform tasks related to Commerce Server specifically, but you use SQL Server Enterprise Manager to perform tasks related to database functionality. This section describes the various tools available for Commerce Server operations.

Commerce Server Manager

Commerce Server Manager is a tool for managing and configuring Commerce Server resources, sites, applications, and Web servers. Microsoft Management Console (MMC), a Windows-based interface that is included in Microsoft Windows Server, hosts Commerce Server Manager. MMC is a tool that presents a common interface for managing different server applications in a Microsoft Windows network. Server applications provide a component called an MMC snap-in that presents MMC users with a user interface for managing the server application.

The functionality in Commerce Server Manager is not available through either Web-based or command line administration. Instead, you access and manipulate most of through Component Object Model (COM) objects. You can write a Windows Script Host (WSH) script or an Active Server Pages (ASP) page to extend the administration environment.

Commerce Server Staging

You can use Commerce Server Staging (CSS) to update content from one server to another or from one computing environment to another. For example, you might publish content changes from a development environment to a test environment, and then from the test environment to a production environment.

SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Server Management Studio is the management tool introduced with Microsoft SQL Server 2005. It integrates management and authoring in a single tool.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Management Studio is the management tool introduced with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services.

Note

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services does not support the Data Warehouse or analytics.

SQL Server Enterprise Manager

SQL Server Enterprise Manager is the primary administrative tool for Microsoft SQL Server 2000. It provides a MMC–compliant user interface that lets users manage administrative tasks.

Depending on your choice of SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000, you will use one of these tools to do the following:

Define groups of servers that are running SQL Server.
Register individual servers in a group.
Configure all SQL Server options for each registered server.
Create and administer all SQL Server databases, objects, logins, users, and permissions in each registered server.
Define and run all SQL Server administrative tasks on each registered server.
Design and test SQL statements, batches, and scripts interactively by using SQL Query Analyzer.
Start the various wizards defined for SQL Server.

SQL Server Enterprise Manager is a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 MMC snap-in.

Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager is a graphical user interface for configuring your application pools or the Web, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP sites. By using IIS Manager, you can configure IIS security, performance, and reliability features. You can add or delete sites; start, stop, and pause sites; back up and restore server configurations; and create virtual directories for better content management, to name only some administrative capabilities.

Site Packager

Microsoft Commerce Server Site Packager is a deployment tool for packaging your Commerce Server site into a single file that includes IIS settings (metabase), the file system, resources from the Administration database, and SQL Server databases. You also use it to unpack the Commerce Server site, or sections of it, onto other computers.