The Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 story takes a while to tell. It's a good tale and worth reading if you've invested in IIS technologies. I can't tell you everything in one sitting because the differences between IIS 6.0 and earlier versions of IIS are many and significant, so this month, I discuss installation, architecture, and the new server capabilities that the architectural overhaul makes possible. Next time, I'll describe the new features, some of which you probably haven't yet heard about, as well as some important changes in the default settings that might affect your migration.
Installing IIS 6.0
Just to cover the basics, Microsoft included IIS 6.0 with the four Windows Server 2003 servers: Windows 2003, Datacenter Edition; Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition; Windows 2003, Standard Edition; and Windows 2003, Web Edition. Also, to answer the most frequently asked IIS 6.0 question, IIS 6.0 won't be available on Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT.
You'll see a difference in the Windows 2003/IIS 6.0 experience immediately after Windows 2003 installation. One key change is that Windows 2003, with the exception of Windows 2003 Web Edition, doesn't install IIS by default. This difference is a big break from Microsoft's past philosophy of installing the OS with IIS enabled for many Web applications. You can install IIS in one of three ways: by using the Manage Your Server Wizard, by using the Control Panel Add/Remove Windows Components applet, or by performing an unattended installation.
The Manage Your Server Wizard starts immediately when you first boot your Windows 2003 system. Select Add or remove a role to see several role choices, including Web Application Server (IIS), as Figure 1 shows. Selecting Web Application Server (IIS) and clicking Next lets you optionally install ASP.NET and Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions. Microsoft's new "Ask before installing anything" IIS policy is a complete about-face for Microsoft and proves the company is taking security seriously.
Using Add/Remove Windows Components proves to be more interesting. When you select Application Server and click Details, Add/Remove Windows Components displays a component list that includes Internet Information Services and some items that previous versions of Add/Remove Windows Components didn't list. Table 1, page 98, shows a comparison of IIS 6.0 and IIS 5.0's Web components. If you install IIS 6.0 from this applet, the result is a Web server that delivers only static content (unless you specify during the installation that you want to enable specific application extensions). If you select IIS and click Details, you see IIS 6.0 subcomponents, which Figure 2, page 98, shows.
You might notice some new options in Table 1, but do you see what isn't there? One significant missing item is Documentation. IIS 6.0 delivers documentation entirely as a Help file—it has no IISHelp virtual directory for you to manage. In IIS 5.0, the Default Web site automatically opened the IIS documentation when you accessed the server locally. In IIS 6.0, you just see an Under Construction screen when you type
http://localhost
Also, IIS 5.0's IISHelp virtual directory contains some error-processing pages implemented in Active Server Pages (ASP). If you use custom or modified Help files and have placed them in IISHelp, you need to create that directory on your IIS 6.0 Web sites.
A closer inspection of IIS 6.0's subcomponents reveals that Internet Services Manager (ISM)—also known as the Administration Web site and installed by default with IIS 5.0 and Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0—appears to be missing. But if you click World Wide Web Service (one of the IIS 6.0 subcomponents, but not visible in Figure 2), then click Details, you see that IIS 6.0's World Wide Web Service has subcomponents, which Figure 3, page 100, shows. These subcomponents include the Administration Web site, which is now named Remote Administration (HTML), and the Windows 2003 and XP version of Terminal Services Advanced Client (TSAC)—Remote Desktop Web Connection. Notice that you now have the option to add or remove these two subcomponents and World Wide Web Service's other subcomponents: ASP, Internet Data Connector, Server Side Includes, WebDAV Publishing, and World Wide Web Service.
The final way to install IIS 6.0 is to use an unattended installation. This method is still the only one that lets you direct the Administration and Default Web site content to a drive other than the system drive. The Windows 2003 process is identical to Win2K's in that you use Sysocmgr and an answer file to invoke the options you want to install. Of course, new features require new option switches. You can find a list of these switches as of Windows 2003 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/windowsnetserver/proddocs/datacenter/gs_installingiis.asp.