Things to Do With IIS

As an IIS administrator it sometimes gets downright annoying having to fend off all the insults from Apache admins I meet claiming innate server superiority. Generally the discussion about Web administration starts first with all the various security holes plaguing IIS and the negative press the platform garnered over the last year. Then it invariably moves to a discussion about how Netcraft and other stats sites show Apache as the dominant server on the Web, or how a certain big site uses Apache, or how there are so many cool modules to add to Apache. Pointing out that scads of non-identified corporate in-house servers run IIS, or that it too is a free server (since it comes with the operating system), or that there are in fact plenty of cool add-ons for IIS (including many that provide source code) -- all this does little to dissuade these server chauvinists of their opinion. Rather than whining about rude Apache admins, however, I thought it would be a more useful response simply to write down some of the ways I've found of improving IIS. So without further delay here are my top ten tips for making the most of your IIS.

Tip 10: Customize Your Error Pages
Although this is quite simple to do, few people seem to take advantage of it. Just select the "Custom Errors" tab in MMC and map each error, such as 404, to the appropriate HTML or ASP template. Full details can be found here. If you want an even easier solution -- or if you want to let developers handle the mapping without giving them access to the MMC -- use a product like CustomError.

Tip 9: Dive into the MetaBase
If you think Apache is powerful because it has a config file, then take a look at the MetaBase. You can do just about anything you want with IIS by editing the MetaBase. For example, you can create virtual directories and servers; stop, start and pause Web sites; and create, delete, enable and disable applications.

Microsoft provides a GUI utility called MetaEdit, somewhat similar to RegEdit, to help you read from and write to the MetaBase. Download the latest version here. But to really impress those UNIX admins -- and to take full advantage of the MetaBase by learning how to manipulate it programmatically -- you'll want to try out the command-line interface, officially called the IIS Administration Script Utility. Its short name is adsutil.vbs and you'll find it in C:\inetpub\adminscripts, or else in %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\adminsamples, together with a host of other useful administrative scripts.

A word of caution though: Just like Apache conf files, the MetaBase is pretty crucial to the functioning of your Web server, so don't ruin it. Back it up first.