Lovely Professional University

Assignment-1
Web Administration (INT 502)

Submitted By:-
Rishav Soni
B.Tech C.S.E (8th
Sem)
Reg No:-
3050060086
Roll No:- RC1601A15
Q1: What is the need of creating virtual directories while developing websites?

A virtual directory is a directory that is not contained in the home directory but appears to
client browsers as though it were. You can create a virtual directory by using IIS Manager or by
using Windows Explorer.

Internet services can be published from many directories. Each directory can be located
anywhere across the network by specifying the directory with a name and authenticate with
username and password. A virtual directory can have one home directory and any number of
other publishing directories.

To simplify, the services present to the client would be by one name for the whole directory tree.
The home directory is the root of this virtual directory tree, and each virtual directory is
addressed as if it was a subdirectory of the home directory. Actual subdirectories of the virtual
directories are available to clients also.

When a virtual directory is defined in Internet Service Manager, an alias is associated with the
virtual directory. The alias is the name that will be used by clients to access information in the
virtual directory. If alias names for virtual directories are not specified by the administrator, an
alias name is generated automatically by Internet Service Manager.

Q2: Why do we create users/groups on server side while publishing websites? Also write
the steps of creating users/groups on IIS.

Users/Groups are created to make the website more secure. It is an important feature of the
website. Each time any user tries to access the site the site he/she had to be first authenticated.

Basically, this functionality is used to control and block the anonymous access to the website. It
is mostly used in the e-commerce sites.

Steps for creating Users\ Groups

1. Open Computer Management from Administrative Tools in Control Panel.

2. Click on 'Local Users and Groups' in the System Tools present on the left
most pane.

3. To add new user right click on 'Users' and click on 'New User'.
 4. A window opens, fill the details such as username, password accordingly and
create on 'Create'.

5. Your user is created.

6. To create a new group, click on the 'Group' Tab below 'Users' under the Local
Users and Groups Tab.

7. A window will open, fill in the details such as Group name, others accordingly
and click on 'Create'.

8. A new group is created.

Q3: How does IIS6.0 differ from their earlier versions? Differentiate IIS from Microsoft vs.
Apache web server.

IIS is different from earlier versions because of following benefits:-

• Reliability. IIS 6.0 uses a new request-processing architecture and application isolation
environment that enables individual Web applications to function within a self-contained
worker process. This environment prevents one application or Web site from stopping
another, and it reduces the amount of time that administrators spend restarting services to
correct application-related problems.
• Scalability. IIS 6.0 introduces a new kernel-mode driver for Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) parsing and caching that is specifically tuned to increase Web server throughput
and scalability of multiprocessor computers. The result is an increase in the following:

 The number of Web sites that a single IIS 6.0 server can host
 The number of concurrently active worker processes
 The performance for startup and shutdown times for the Web server and for
individual Web sites
 The number of simultaneous requests that a Web server can service.

• Security. IIS 6.0 provides significantly improved security over IIS 5.0. IIS 6.0 includes a
variety of security features and technologies to help ensure the integrity of your Web and
FTP site content, as well as the data that is transmitted through your sites. These security
 features and technologies include Advanced Digest authentication, improved access
control, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, centralized certificate storage, and
detailed auditing capabilities.
• Manageability. To meet the needs of a diverse set of organizations, IIS 6.0 provides a
variety of manageability and administration tools. Administrators can configure an IIS
6.0 server by using IIS Manager, by running administration scripts, or by directly editing
the IIS metabase. Administrators can also remotely administer IIS servers and Web sites.
• Enhanced Development. Compared to Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003
offers an improved developer experience with ASP.NET and IIS integration. ASP.NET
runs most Active Server Pages (ASP) code while providing greater functionality for
building enterprise-class Web applications that can work as a part of the .NET
Framework. Use ASP.NET to fully utilize the features of the common language runtime,
such as type safety, inheritance, language interoperability, and versioning. IIS 6.0 also
offers support for the latest Web standards including XML, SOAP, and Internet Protocol
version 6 (IPv6).
• Application Compatibility. According to feedback from thousands of customers and
independent software vendors (ISVs), IIS 6.0 is compatible with most of their existing
Web applications. Also, to ensure maximum compatibility, IIS 6.0 can be configured to
run in IIS 5.0 isolation mode.

IIS v/s Apache

Web Server Prerequisites: Apache is by far the most widely used Web server and runs on
UNIX, Linux, Mac OS and Windows. IIS runs only on Windows.

Administration Considerations: Unlike Apache, IIS provides GUI support for server
administration. IIS also provides the ability to administer one or more IIS Web servers from a
Web browser. IIS also provides some common administration functions available with other
Microsoft products, such as a setup wizard and unattended/remote setup and maintenance. IIS
even provides integration with Windows operating system functions such as directory services,
backup and restore of IIS configuration information and the Windows performance monitor.
Q4: What is the role and working of metabase file in the architecture of IIS?

The metabase is a hierarchical store of configuration information and schema that are used to
configure Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0. The main role of the metabase is to hold the
configuration settings for the IIS.

Working of Metabase

The Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 metabase comprises two plaintext XML files that
store IIS configuration values and schema. The metabase can be edited manually, by using IIS
Manager, or it can be edited programmatically. In addition, the IIS 6.0 metabase is extensible in
a highly efficient manner — as your IIS deployment grows, so does the metabase. By using an
inheritance model, explicit declarations of duplicate values are avoided, which reduces overhead
when IIS reads configuration values from the metabase.

The metabase is a hierarchical store of configuration information and schema that are used to
configure IIS. The metabase configuration and schema for IIS 4.0 and IIS 5.0 were stored in a
single binary file named MetaBase.bin, which was not easy to read or edit. IIS 6.0 replaces
MetaBase.bin with two XML files named MetaBase.xml and MBSchema.xml. These files are
stored on your computer in the ‘systemroot\System32\Inetsrv’ folder. Only users who are
members of the Administrators group can view and modify these files.

The metabase configuration file, MetaBase.xml, stores most of the IIS configuration. Some IIS
configuration values are also stored in the Windows registry. If a configuration value is one that
you might need to configure or change, or if you can access the setting in the IIS 6.0 user
interface, then the setting is typically stored in the IIS metabase.

The MetaBase.xml file is organized in a hierarchical structure, which can vary depending on the
choices that are made when IIS is installed and, if needed, reconfigured. When IIS is started or
restarted, the configuration settings are read from MetaBase.xml and copied into the IIS cache
in-memory, which is referred to as the in-memory metabase. When IIS Manager or
programmatic interfaces are used to change IIS configuration, the changes are made to the in-
memory metabase and persisted to MetaBase.xml after a previously configured number of
changes, or according to regular time intervals.

In physical terms, the metabase is a combination of the MetaBase.xml and MBSchema.xml files
and the in-memory metabase. The IIS configuration information is stored in the MetaBase.xml
file, while the metabase schema is stored in the MBSchema.xml file. When IIS is started, these
files are read by the storage layer and then written to the in-memory metabase through Admin
Base Objects (ABOs), as shown in figure,

The metabase configuration and schema are stored in separate nodes in the in-memory metabase.
The in-memory metabase itself resides in the IIS file cache in your computer's RAM. While IIS
is running, changes that are made to the in-memory metabase are periodically saved to disk. The
in-memory metabase is also saved to disk when IIS is stopped.

Q5: How do IIS handle, process and response the multiple requests for web pages?

IIS 6.0 provides a redesigned World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service) architecture
that can help you achieve better performance, reliability, scalability, and security for your Web
sites, whether they run on a single server running IIS or on multiple servers.

In IIS 6.0, application isolation is configured differently for each of the two IIS application
isolation modes. Both modes rely on the HTTP protocol stack (also referred to as HTTP.sys) to
receive Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests from the Internet and return responses.
HTTP.sys resides in kernel mode, where operating system code, such as device drivers, runs.
HTTP.sys listens for, and queues, HTTP requests.
The new request-processing architecture and application isolation environment enables
individual Web applications, which always run in user mode, to function within a self-contained
worker process. A worker process is user-mode code whose role is to process requests, such as
returning a static page or invoking an Internet Server API (ISAPI) extension or filter. Worker
processes use HTTP.sys to receive requests and send responses over HTTP.

Worker process isolation mode is the new IIS request processing model. In this application
isolation mode, you can group Web applications into application pools, through which you can
apply configuration settings to the worker processes that service those applications. An
application pool corresponds to one request routing queue within HTTP.sys and one or more
worker processes. Worker process isolation mode enables you to completely separate an
application in its own process, with no dependence on a central process such as Inetinfo.exe to
load and execute the application. All requests are handled by worker processes that are isolated
from the Web server itself. Process boundaries separate each application pool so that when an
application is routed to one application pool, applications in other application pools do not affect
that application. By using application pools, you can run all application code in an isolated
environment without incurring a performance penalty.

Q6: What are the various permissions available on website while working with IIS 6.0?

Permissions available on website while working with IIS 6.0 are:-

• Create Files / Write Data

• Create Folders / Append Data

• Write Attributes

• Write Extended Attributes

• Delete Subfolders and Files

• Delete