This is a video on how you can use DebugDiag to monitor process crashes.

  You can analyze the responses sent from a webserver to determine the version of IIS running (And in turn the version of the Windows Server). I have seen a lot of people discuss this. So here is my guide ... The easiest way is to capture a network...

Here is a list of the OID values related to IIS that you can query using SNMP. TotalBytesSent_HighWord 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.7.3.1.1.0 TotalBytesSent_LowWord 1.3.6.1.4.1.311.1.7.3.1.2.0 TotalBytesReceived_HighWord ...

The IIS 7 manager provides a UI for almost all sections for the web.config. It does simplify things for administrators but I have seen a couple of cases where this has lead to interesting problems. Let us consider the Machine Key feature that the IIS...

In case you have problems with the setup files for ASP.NET Debugger Extension you can manually install the module. FILES ADE.dll This is the main module that loads in IIS Location : GAC ADEWOWHelper.exe This is a helper exe...

With ASP.NET Debugger Extension you can also trace the process for events. This is actually a wrapper around the MdbgEngine (mdbgcore.dll) options to interrupt a process when an event occurs. You can use it to trace exceptions / module loads etc. For...

ASP.NET Debugger Extension has an useful feature to find modules that are built in debug mode. You start by selecting a website, ADE then scans all the folders under that website to figure out the modules that are built in debug mode. Debug modules should...

I recently created an ASP.NET Debugger Extension for IIS 7 that you can use to troubleshoot issues that would usually involve taking a memory dump of the process. One of the features in this extension is the ability to get a managed stack trace of all...

Just finished writing an extension for IIS 7 that will provide advanced debugging features for IIS worker processes running managed code. It basically does three things 1. Find Debug Modules This feature will help you scan your website content...

I have seen at least 5 separate instances where users have complained that the FTP 7 module that ships for IIS 7 does not honor the “Data Channel Port Range” and the “External IP Address of Firewall” settings. Whenever you make a change to this...

The SSL Diagnostics tool is a very useful tool for troubleshooting SSL issues.  It generates a detailed report of SSL settings for all the websites on an IIS server which helps in quickly identifying SSL issues. But the tool was built for IIS 5 and...

On Windows 2008 RTM (SP1) you would install the FTP 7.5 Out Of Band module from http://www.iis.net/extensions/ftp . But when you try to install it on Windows 2008 R2 you will get the following error. This version of the operating system is not supported...

While trying to install Visual Studio 2008 on a Windows 2008 R2 machine you may get the following error. This is because Windows 2008 R2 ships with the .NET 3.5.1 framework. You just need to enable the feature from Server Manager . So before...

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has been around even before I was born :) It is a good protocol for transferring files across the network but has one major flaw. If you use authentication it sends the password in a Base64 encoded format over the wire...

“I install a SSL server certificate using the ‘Complete Certificate Request’ wizard in IIS manager and when I refresh the view the certificate disappears. “ I have heard that a couple of times and every time I used to go “What ?” Until someone showed...

The machineKey element of the ASP.NET web.config specifies the algorithm and keys that ASP.NET will use for encryption. By default the validationKey and the decryptionKey keys are set to AutoGenerate which means the runtime will generate a random key...

SMTP service running on IIS 6.0 provides you options to restrict IP addresses of computers that can relay mail messages through this server. The value(list of IP addresses) is stored in the RelayIpList metabase property as an octet string. I was...

When ever you create a new application pool IIS only asks you for four things 1. Name, 2. .NET Framework version, 3. Managed pipeline mode and 4. Weather to start the application pool immediately What about the remaining advanced settings like the identity...

IIS 7.0 has a nice feature of creating self-signed certificates … very handy for creating test certificates. I was recently asked if there is a way to modify the validity period of the certificate it creates. Unfortunately No! The module that...

IIS 7.0 manager has a nice feature of generating self-signed certificates that you can use for running tests. At the global level select Server Certificates and in the Actions Pane on the right you get the option to Create Self-Signed Certificate…...

When a client accesses a web site on anonymous authentication IIS uses a pre configured account to access the corresponding files on disk. In IIS 5.0 / 6.0 we used a local account called the IUSR_machinename for anonymous authentication. With IIS 7.0...

Process Monitor and Process Explorer are great tools for troubleshooting issues on Windows machines. Process Explorer can be used to investigate a running process from handles to dlls loaded. Process Monitor is my favourate and it can be used to monitor...

Instead of returning the “Service Unavailable” message to the client you can terminate the TCP connection. This can be helpful in environments where you have a Load Balancer which ’understands’ a TCP reset instead of “Service Unavailable”. In IIS 7.0...

Metabase.xml is the central store where IIS 6.0 stores most of its configuration information. Its a plain text file and stores all the information in a simple XML format. The XML format naturally raised a notion of being able to XCOPY the config file...

Rapid-Fail Protection disables application pools if they crash multiple times within in a specified time period. This prevents the failing application pool from getting into a continuous loop of crashing and restarting. This protects other application...