Planning the Installation : Installation Scenarios for IIS 7.0 (part 3) - Server Core Web Edition Server Workload

Server Core Web Edition Server Workload

Windows Server 2008 introduces Server Core, which is a complete command line shell operating system.

Note

A good introduction to IIS 7.0 Server Core is available at http://www.iis.net/articles/view.aspx/IIS7/Explore-IIS7/Getting-Started/IIS7-on-Server-Core.

Server Core provides an installation option that produces a server that can be treated as an appliance. Traditional UI components such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player are not installed. Server Core Web Edition is perfect for hosting IIS 7.0 when you want to support classic ASP; static, PHP-based; Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI); and other Web applications that do not require .NET. Server Core does not include ASP.NET and .NET functionality. Even without ASP.NET, you can use Server Core Web Edition for various workloads. For example, you can use Server Core to serve images. Only two modules are required for this server workload: the StaticFileModule and AnonymousAuthenticationModule. The following example shows the power and flexibility of the IIS 7.0 modular architecture.

Installing IIS 7.0 on Server Core Web Edition

To install IIS 7.0 on Server Core Web Edition, follow these steps:

1.	Install Server Core Web Edition and configure the Server Core instance with an IP address. You’ll need two commands to configure your server with an IP address. Enter the following command at a command prompt: netsh interface ipv4 show interfaces The output is similar to the following: Idx Met MTU State Name --- --- ----- ----------- ------------------- 2 10 1500 connected Local Area Connection 1 50 4294967295 connected Loopback Pseudo-Interface Next, enter the following command at the command prompt (replace the IP information with appropriate values for your environment): netsh interface ipv4 set address name="2" source=static address=192.168.0.10 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.0.1
2.	Now, to perform a default installation of IIS 7.0, run the following command at the command prompt: start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;WAS-WindowsActivationService; WAS-ProcessModel
3.	Back up the current ApplicationHost.config file by running the following command at the command prompt: %windir%\System32\Inetsrv\appcmd add backup "ContosoComConfig"
4.	Open the file %windir%\System32\Inetsrv\Config\ApplicationHost.config in Notepad. To do this, you can type the following from the command line: Notepad %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
5.	Locate the Global Modules section and change it as follows: <globalModules> <add name="StaticFileModule" image="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\static.dll" /> <add name="AnonymousAuthenticationModule" image="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\authanon.dll" /> <add name="HttpLoggingModule" image="%windir%\system32\inetsrv\loghttp.dll" /> </globalModules>
6.	Locate the Modules section in ApplicationHost.config and change it to match the following: <modules> <add name="StaticFileModule" lockItem="true" /> <add name="AnonymousAuthenticationModule" lockItem="true" /> <add name="HttpLoggingModule" lockItem="true" /> </modules>
7.	Open a browser from a remote machine and visit http://<IPAddressOfServerCore>/welcome.png. This should display the Welcome message. From a command prompt on the Server Core, you can verify that just three modules related to IIS 7.0 are loaded. To do so, run the following command from the command prompt: tasklist /m /fi "Imagename eq w3wp.exe" The resulting output should look like this: Image Name PID Modules ========================= ======== ============================================ w3wp.exe 1108 ntdll.dll, kernel32.dll, ADVAPI32.dll, RPCRT4.dll, msvcrt.dll, USER32.dll, GDI32.dll, ole32.dll, IISUTIL.dll, CRYPT32.dll, MSASN1.dll, USERENV.dll, Secur32.dll, WS2_32.dll, NSI.dll, IMM32.DLL, MSCTF.dll, LPK.DLL, USP10.dll, NTMARTA.DLL, WLDAP32.dll, PSAPI.DLL, SAMLIB.dll, w3wphost.dll, OLEAUT32.dll, nativerd.dll, XmlLite.dll, IISRES.DLL, rsaenh.dll, CLBCatQ.DLL, mlang.dll, comctl32.dll, SHLWAPI.dll, iiscore.dll, W3TP.dll, w3dt.dll, HTTPAPI.dll, slc.dll, faultrep.dll, VERSION.dll, mswsock.dll, DNSAPI.dll, NLAapi.dll, IPHLPAPI.DLL, dhcpcsvc.DLL, WINNSI.DLL, dhcpcsvc6.DLL, wshtcpip.dll, wship6.dll, static.dll, authanon.dll, loghttp.dll

Notice the last three dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) are static.dll, authanon.dll, and loghttp.dll. The DLLs are loaded in the same order as they are listed in the ApplicationHost.config file. The other modules are related to the operating system.

This example demonstrates a lightweight yet flexible server that can serve images and log the hits in standard IIS logs. You can use your normal Web reporting tools to track the images being served.

Caution

Back up your ApplicationHost.config file whenever you manually edit the file. Doing so allows you to restore your server to its original state if a problem should occur. You would not make it a regular task to restore your ApplicationHost.config file, however; you would only run the restore command if there was an issue, or for this example, to restore your server to its original state.

Note

For more information about administering IIS 7.0 on Server Core installations of Windows Server 2008, go to http://blogs.iis.net/metegokt/archive/2007/06/26/administering-iis7-on-server-core-installations-of-windows-server-2008.aspx.