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Ten Things To Do With IIS
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As an IIS administrator it sometimes gets downright annoying having to fend off
all the insults from Apache admins I meet claming innate server superiority.
Generally the discussion about Web administration starts first with all the
various security holes plaguing IIS and the negative press the platform garnered
over the last year. Then it invariably moves to a discussion about how Netcraft
and other stats sites show Apache as the dominant server on the Web, or how a
certain big site uses Apache, or how there are so many cool modules to add to
Apache. Pointing out that scads of non-identified corporate in-house servers run
IIS, or that it too is a free server (since it comes with the operating system),
or that there are in fact plenty of cool add-ons for IIS (including many that
provide source code) -- all this does little to dissuade these server
chauvinists of their opinion. Rather than whining about rude Apache admins,
however, I thought it would be a more useful response simply to write down some
of the ways I've found of improving IIS. So without further delay here are my
top ten tips for making the most of your IIS.
Tip 10: Customize Your Error Pages
Although this is quite simple to do, few people seem to take advantage of it.
Just select the "Custom Errors" tab in MMC and map each error, such as 404, to
the appropriate HTML or ASP template. Full details can be found here. If you
want an even easier solution -- or if you want to let developers handle the
mapping without giving them access to the MMC -- use a product like CustomError.
Tip 9: Dive into the MetaBase
If you think Apache is powerful because it has a config file, then take a look
at the MetaBase. You can do just about anything you want with IIS by editing the
MetaBase. For example, you can create virtual directories and servers; stop,
start and pause Web sites; and create, delete, enable and disable applications.
Microsoft provides a GUI utility called MetaEdit, somewhat similar to RegEdit,
to help you read from and write to the MetaBase. Download the latest version
here. But to really impress those UNIX admins -- and to take full advantage of
the MetaBase by learning how to manipulate it programmatically -- you'll want to
try out the command-line interface, officially called the IIS Administration
Script Utility. Its short name is adsutil.vbs and you'll find it in
C:\inetpub\adminscripts, or else in %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\adminsamples,
together with a host of other useful administrative scripts.
A word of caution though: Just like Apache conf files, the MetaBase is pretty
crucial to the functioning of your Web server, so don't ruin it. Back it up
first.
Tip 8: Add spell checking to your URLs
Apache folks always brag about cool little tricks that Apache is capable of --
especially because of the wealth of modules that can extend the server's basic
functionality. One of the coolest of these is the ability to fix URL typos using
a module called mod_speling. Well, thanks to the folks at Port80 Software, it
now appears that IIS admins can do this trick too, using an ISAPI filter called
URLSpellCheck. You can check it out right on their site, by trying URLs like
www.urlspellcheck.com/fak.htm, www.urlspellcheck.com/faq1.htm -- or any other
simple typo you care to make.
Tip 7: Rewrite your URLs
Cleaning your URLs has all sorts of benefits -- it can improve the security of
your site, ease migration woes, and provide an extra layer of abstraction to
your Web applications. Moving from a ColdFusion to an ASP based site, for
example, is no big deal if you can remap the URLs. Apache users have long
bragged about the huge power of mod_rewrite -- the standard Apache module for
URL rewriting. Well, there are now literally a dozen versions of this type of
product for IIS -- many of them quite a bit easier to use than mod_rewrite,
which tends to presume familiarity with regular expression arcana. Check out,
for example, IIS ReWrite or ISAPI ReWrite. So brag no more, Apache partisans.
Tip 6: Add browser detection
There are a lot of ways to build Web sites, but assuming everybody has a certain
browser or screen size is just plain stupid. Simple JavaScript sniff-scripts
exist for client-side browser detection, but if you are an IIS user you can do
better with a product called BrowserHawk from CyScape. The Apache world doesn't
really have something comparable to this popular, mature and well-supported
product. Speaking of CyScape, they've recently added an interesting-looking
related product called CountryHawk that helps with location detection, but so
far I haven't had the language- or location-sensitive content to warrant trying
it out.
Tip 5: Gzip site content
Browsers can handle Gzipped and deflated content and decompress it on the fly.
While IIS 5 had a gzip feature built-in, it is pretty much broken. Enter
products like Pipeboost to give us better functionality -- similar to what
Apache users have enjoyed with mod_gzip. Don't waste your bandwidth -- even
Google encodes its content, and their pages are tiny.
Tip 4: Cache your content
While I'm on the topic of improving performance, remember to make your site
cache friendly. You can set expiration headers for different files or
directories right from the MMC. Just right click on an item via the IIS MMC,
flip to the "HTTP Headers" tab, and away you go. If you want to set cache
control headers programmatically -- or even better, let your site developers do
it -- use something like CacheRight. If you want to go further and add reverse
proxy caching, particularly for generated content, use a product like Xcache --
which also throws in compression.
It might involve more time and expense to take full advantage of caching, but
when you watch your logs shrink because they don't contain tons of pointless 304
responses, and your bandwidth consumption drop like a stone, even while your
total page views increase over the same period, you'll start to understand why
this particular tip was so important. Cache friendly sites are quite rare, but
there is plenty of information available online about the enormous benefits to
be had by doing it right: Check out Brian Davidson's page, this nifty tutorial
from Mark Nottingham, and what AOL has to say on the subject.
Tip 3: Tune your server
Tuning IIS is no small topic -- whole books and courses are dedicated to it. But
some good basic help is available online, such as this piece from IIS guru Brett
Hill, or this Knowledge Base article from Microsoft itself. However, if you
don't feel like getting your hands dirty -- or can't afford the time and expense
of turning yourself into an expert -- take a look at Xtune, from the makers of
Xcache. It's performance tuning wizards step you through the process of tuning
your IIS environment, making expert recommendations along the way.
Tip 2: Secure your server with simple fixes
Sure people are going to attack sites, but you don't have to be a sitting duck
if you're willing to make even a small effort. First off, don't advertise the
fact that you are running IIS by showing your HTTP server header. Remove or
replace it using something like ServerMask -- probably the best twenty-five
bucks you'll ever spend. You can go farther than this by removing unnecessary
file extensions to further camouflage your server environment, and scanning
request URLs for signs of exploits. There are number of commercial products that
do user input scanning, and Microsoft offers a free tool called URLScan which
does the job. URLScan runs in conjunction with IISLockDown, a standard security
package which should probably be installed on every IIS server on the planet.
These are simple fixes that could pay off big, so do them now.
Tip 1: Patch, patch, patch!
Okay, we in the IIS world do have to patch our systems and make hotfixes.
However, as a former Solaris admin I had to do the same thing there, so I am not
sure why this is a big surprise. You really need to keep up with the patches,
Microsoft is of course the definitive source, but if you can also use the
highly-regarded www.cert.org. Simply search on "IIS".
Well there you have it: 10 tips for IIS admins to improve their servers. Some of
the tips might become obsolete once IIS 6 is gold, but, for now at least, W2K
and NT IIS admins should apply a few of these today and sleep a little better at
night.
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