Configuring Server 2008 R2 Core Series: Installing and Managing IIS

24. March 2010
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So, you’ve installed a new server with Server 2008 R2 Core – what next? Logging on, you’re presented with a shiny command prompt, you can run notepad or regedit…but aside from that, where do you go from there? In the next few series of posts I’ll hopefully point out the basics, and some not so basics!

In this post, I’m covering Installing the IIS web server (and a few useful bits) and managing it from the IIS Management Snap-in.

Installing the basic IIS installation

Installing optional components in Server 2008 R2 Core is handled by two commands, OCList and OCSetup. OCList, as the name suggests, lists the optional components and their status, installed or not installed. It’s a long list, so I recommend issuing the command with the “|more” pipe:

oclist | more

The output looks something like this:

image

OCSetup will accept any one, or multiple, of the roles listed in OCList as an argument to install. It’s recommended you use the command with “start /w” preceding so that the command prompt will wait for the installation to finish before continuing.

To install the basic IIS web server install, use

start /w ocsetup IIS-WebServerRole

As far as I can see, this installs the roles:

Installed:IIS-WebServerRole
Installed:IIS-WebServer
Installed:IIS-ApplicationDevelopment
Installed:IIS-CommonHttpFeatures
Installed:IIS-DefaultDocument
Installed:IIS-DirectoryBrowsing
Installed:IIS-HttpErrors
Installed:IIS-StaticContent
Installed:IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics
Installed:IIS-HttpLogging
Installed:IIS-Performance
Installed:IIS-HttpCompressionStatic
Installed:IIS-Security
Installed:IIS-RequestFiltering
Installed:IIS-WebServerManagementTools

In order to get .Net functioning and allow remote management, you’ll also need the following components installed, a registry key added and the Web Management Service Started (in order):

start /w ocsetup WAS-NetFxEnvironment
start /w ocsetup IIS-ISAPIExtensions
start /w ocsetup IIS-ISAPIFilter
start /w ocsetup IIS-NetFxExtensibility
start /w ocsetup IIS-ASPNET
start /w ocsetup IIS-ManagementService

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebManagement\Server /v EnableRemoteManagement /t REG_DWORD /d 1

net start wmsvc

You should now be able to manage your IIS server via the IIS Management Console on a Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7 PC with Remote Server Administration Tools installed.

image

You can also manage IIS through a PowerShell addin, if you run powershell.exe on your Server Core installation, then import the WebAdministration Module:

C:\Users\Administrator>powershell
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\Administrator> Import-Module WebAdministration
PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-Command -PsSnapin WebAdministration

CommandType     Name                            Definition
-----------     ----                            ----------
Cmdlet          Add-WebConfiguration            Add-WebConfiguration [-Filte...
Cmdlet          Add-WebConfigurationLock        Add-WebConfigurationLock [-F...
Cmdlet          Add-WebConfigurationProperty    Add-WebConfigurationProperty...
Cmdlet          Backup-WebConfiguration         Backup-WebConfiguration [-Na...
Alias           Begin-WebCommitDelay            Start-WebCommitDelay
Cmdlet          Clear-WebConfiguration          Clear-WebConfiguration [-Fil...
Cmdlet          Clear-WebRequestTracingSettings Clear-WebRequestTracingSetti...
Cmdlet          ConvertTo-WebApplication        ConvertTo-WebApplication [[-...
Cmdlet          Disable-WebGlobalModule         Disable-WebGlobalModule [-Na...
Cmdlet          Disable-WebRequestTracing       Disable-WebRequestTracing [[...
Cmdlet          Enable-WebGlobalModule          Enable-WebGlobalModule [-Nam...
Cmdlet          Enable-WebRequestTracing        Enable-WebRequestTracing [[-...
Alias           End-WebCommitDelay              Stop-WebCommitDelay
Cmdlet          Get-WebAppDomain                Get-WebAppDomain [-InputObje...
Cmdlet          Get-WebApplication              Get-WebApplication [[-Name] ...
Cmdlet          Get-WebAppPoolState             Get-WebAppPoolState [[-Name]...
Cmdlet          Get-WebBinding                  Get-WebBinding [[-Name] <Str...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfigFile               Get-WebConfigFile [[-PSPath]...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfiguration            Get-WebConfiguration [-Filte...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfigurationBackup      Get-WebConfigurationBackup [...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfigurationLocation    Get-WebConfigurationLocation...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfigurationLock        Get-WebConfigurationLock [-F...
Cmdlet          Get-WebConfigurationProperty    Get-WebConfigurationProperty...
Cmdlet          Get-WebFilePath                 Get-WebFilePath [[-PSPath] <...
Cmdlet          Get-WebGlobalModule             Get-WebGlobalModule [[-Name]...
Cmdlet          Get-WebHandler                  Get-WebHandler [[-Name] <Str...
Cmdlet          Get-WebItemState                Get-WebItemState [[-PSPath] ...
Cmdlet          Get-WebManagedModule            Get-WebManagedModule [[-Name...
Cmdlet          Get-WebRequest                  Get-WebRequest [-InputObject...
Cmdlet          Get-Website                     Get-Website [[-Name] <String...
Cmdlet          Get-WebsiteState                Get-WebsiteState [[-Name] <S...
Cmdlet          Get-WebURL                      Get-WebURL [[-PSPath] <Strin...
Cmdlet          Get-WebVirtualDirectory         Get-WebVirtualDirectory [[-N...
Function        IIS:                            set-location IIS:
Cmdlet          New-WebApplication              New-WebApplication [-Name] <...
Cmdlet          New-WebAppPool                  New-WebAppPool [-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          New-WebBinding                  New-WebBinding [[-Name] <Str...
Cmdlet          New-WebFtpSite                  New-WebFtpSite [-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          New-WebGlobalModule             New-WebGlobalModule [-Name] ...
Cmdlet          New-WebHandler                  New-WebHandler [-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          New-WebManagedModule            New-WebManagedModule [-Name]...
Cmdlet          New-Website                     New-Website [-Name] <String>...
Cmdlet          New-WebVirtualDirectory         New-WebVirtualDirectory [-Na...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebApplication           Remove-WebApplication [-Name...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebAppPool               Remove-WebAppPool [-Name] <S...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebBinding               Remove-WebBinding [-Protocol...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebConfigurationBackup   Remove-WebConfigurationBacku...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebConfigurationLocation Remove-WebConfigurationLocat...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebConfigurationLock     Remove-WebConfigurationLock ...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebConfigurationProperty Remove-WebConfigurationPrope...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebGlobalModule          Remove-WebGlobalModule [-Nam...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebHandler               Remove-WebHandler [-Name] <S...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebManagedModule         Remove-WebManagedModule [-Na...
Cmdlet          Remove-Website                  Remove-Website [-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          Remove-WebVirtualDirectory      Remove-WebVirtualDirectory [...
Cmdlet          Rename-WebConfigurationLocation Rename-WebConfigurationLocat...
Cmdlet          Restart-WebAppPool              Restart-WebAppPool [[-Name] ...
Cmdlet          Restart-WebItem                 Restart-WebItem [[-PSPath] <...
Cmdlet          Restore-WebConfiguration        Restore-WebConfiguration [-N...
Cmdlet          Select-WebConfiguration         Select-WebConfiguration [-Fi...
Cmdlet          Set-WebBinding                  Set-WebBinding [[-Name] <Str...
Cmdlet          Set-WebConfiguration            Set-WebConfiguration [-Filte...
Cmdlet          Set-WebConfigurationProperty    Set-WebConfigurationProperty...
Cmdlet          Set-WebGlobalModule             Set-WebGlobalModule [-Name] ...
Cmdlet          Set-WebHandler                  Set-WebHandler [-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          Set-WebManagedModule            Set-WebManagedModule [-Name]...
Cmdlet          Start-WebAppPool                Start-WebAppPool [[-Name] <S...
Cmdlet          Start-WebCommitDelay            Start-WebCommitDelay [-Verbo...
Cmdlet          Start-WebItem                   Start-WebItem [[-PSPath] <St...
Cmdlet          Start-Website                   Start-Website [[-Name] <Stri...
Cmdlet          Stop-WebAppPool                 Stop-WebAppPool [[-Name] <St...
Cmdlet          Stop-WebCommitDelay             Stop-WebCommitDelay [[-PSPat...
Cmdlet          Stop-WebItem                    Stop-WebItem [[-PSPath] <Str...
Cmdlet          Stop-Website                    Stop-Website [[-Name] <Strin...

Serve up a .NET page, to taste

Not that you’d doubt me (!) but there’s one last thing to do - prove it worked. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to do that. I borrowed the code from www.codefixer.com to create a little “hello world” page. Since the default website is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ I saved the page there as default.aspx and fired up my browser – et voila!

image

IIS, PowerShell, ASP.NET, Windows Server 2008 , , , , ,

Compiling a .Net DLL for a medium trust environment

18. September 2008
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Recently I wrote a little utility for a client using the excellent Html Agility Pack to read and navigate through a HTML page, selecting the data that was needed and parsing it - basically a screen scrape. I downloaded the source, compiled it, added a reference to the dll in my project and tapped away for a few minutes and et voila, within a few minutes a working screen scrape. A fantastic library.

On uploading the project to my GoDaddy web hosting however, I encountered a problem. You see, my hosting is a shared hosting environment, and like most such webhosting environments is set to a Medium Trust level for .Net applications. As MS dryly puts it:

Applications that receive less than full trust by the runtime code access security system are not allowed to call shared managed libraries unless the library writer specifically allows them to through the use of the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute Class. Therefore, application writers must be aware that some libraries will not be available to them from a partially trusted context.

The solution, although slightly confusing from the MS documentation, is actually very simple. I opened the HtmlAgilityPack source code, and edited the AssemblyInfo.cs file. Firstly, add a reference to the AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute: 

[assembly: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute()]

Since AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute is part of the System.Security namespace, we must add a reference at the top of the page: 

using System.Security;

I then rebuilt the project, rebuilt the web project and it now works like a charm.

ASP.NET , , ,