Microsoft Web Deployment Tool

klevereblog — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:19:44 GMT

Microsoft has created the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool, which provides deployment and migration support for Internet Information Services versions 6.0 and 7.0. This tool incorporates many features that enable web server administrators to deploy, sync and migrate sites, including configuration, content, SSL certificates and other types of data associated with a Web server. For additional information, please see our documentation. This version of the tool, Beta 1, is a Go Live and can be used for production testing.

This tool can be used on Windows Server 2008 and Internet Information Services 7.0 as well as Windows Server 2003 and Internet Information Services 6.0. Please note that this is a Beta 1 release of the tool. As with any pre-release tools or software, you should always backup your system before using it.

Features

The tool supports a wide range of features, and the following list contains several of the features in this version:

Synchronization of IIS 6.0/IIS 7.0:
The sync operation provides administrators with a way to quickly synchronize a site or server and deploy changes to existing sites and servers. A synchronization allows you to synchronize one source with one destination. For example, you can synchronize two directory paths or two web servers. The sync can be performed with local or remote objects.

Snapshot of IIS 6.0/IIS 7.0:
The snapshot, or archive, functionality allows administrators or developers to quickly take an archive of their web site or server for rollback, restore or backup purposes.

Migration from IIS 6.0:
The migrate operation provides administrators with a way to migrate sites or entire servers from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0, including their settings and content. A migration is essentially a way of synchronizing, filtered by migration rules. For example, when migrating from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0, MS Deploy will check the value of some properties and see if it is the IIS 6.0 default. If it is the default, such as the log files directory, it will instead use the value set on the IIS 7.0 server. This enables a server admin to maintain new settings on IIS 7.0 while moving sites or applications from IIS 6.0.

Analysis of IIS 6.0 Installed Features:
The analyze operation allows administrators to check what components are installed on the source server. In this way, they can determine if features are present that they will need in IIS 7.0 or that require more advanced setup than simply copying files. For example, ASP.NET requires more than a file copy and will need to be installed on the destination server.

Troubleshooting and Validation Features:
For validating an operation, the -whatif flag allows administrators to see what actions would happen when they perform an operation. This is especially useful for performing sync or migration, when they want to validate what changes will be made before performing them. For troubleshooting, the -verboseLevel flag allows administrators to get rich detail about what operations are being performed, and upon failure, the ability to diagnose the problem.

NEW FEATURES in this version!

PowerShell Support:
PowerShell cmdlets are included, allowing you to use the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool conveniently with PowerShell. For more information about how the PowerShell cmdlets work, see the Help file as well as the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool walkthroughs.

Enhanced Dependency Checking:
The dependencies that are checked for a web site or server can now be viewed on IIS 7.0 as well as IIS 6.0. They can be turned off on a granular level, such as disabling the drive space dependency check while still running the other dependency checks, or disabling the check for a single ISAPI script map. Additionally, when you view dependencies, you will be able to see the “trigger” for the dependency (what location(s) in configuration caused the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool to say that the module/component is a potential dependency).

You can get support for The Microsoft Web Deployment Tool using this forum: http://forums.iis.net/1144.aspx.

Benefits

This tool is a substantial step forward for helping you to deploy, sync or migrate sites and servers in your Web environment.

Specifically, you can accomplish the following tasks:

Simplify web farm deployments
Migrate sites or entire servers
Snapshot sites or entire servers for backups or versioning
Determine the differences between two sites or servers
Determine what components your site depends on

The tool can be found here: x86 or x64

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Some interesting stats on Web Site Defacements by OS and Web Server

klevereblog — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:23:00 GMT

Linux leads Windows by a wide margin. It's interesting though that the synopsis is not that Windows has improved greatly from a web server security perspective, but rather, that people migrated from Windows to Linux and thus the sites are still attacked.

I got the link from Slashdot. I didn't bother to look at the comments there because I pretty much can already guess what they say. Check for yourself and form your own conclusion.

http://www.zone-h.org/content/view/14928/30/

IIS Hosting Documentation Moves to IIS.Net

klevereblog — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:14:00 GMT

We have officially moved the Microsoft Web Hosting content to IIS.Net. You can find it here at http://learn.iis.net. I think one of the coolest thing that we've added is the Wiki functionality so that the hosting community can better share hosting best practices. Because configuration best practices are constantly changing a Wiki will allow us and the community to constantly update things over time.

ARE YOU READY FOR WINDOWS 2008 and IIS7

klevereblog — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:03:00 GMT

If you're not here is your chance. We will be heading back on the road again beginning in September for our Windows 2008 Training Road Show. This roadshow will be lab based and will largely focus on IIS 7. So if you are looking to get your hands on Windows 2008 and IIS 7 and have expert instruction on use of the new features this is the event for you. We will cover several cities in the U.S. and Worldwide. Follow the link below to register.

http://ws08hostingroadshow.msregistration.com/content/class.asp?CcpSubsiteID=65&productid=3006

Please comment my blog or use the email link if you have any questions or simply to let me know which event you will be attending.

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