Common IIS Component Type Formats, Errors, and Functions

The IIS component types share a common implementation. All IIS component types enable you to export, install, and delete data stored in the IIS metabase. To enable the common behaviors, these component types share a set of functions, formats, and errors.

Common IIS Browsing

When you browse for an IIS component, the browser provides a list of web sites and virtual directories on the target system. These items appear in the order that they occur in the metabase. This corresponds to the order in which the items appear in the IIS Control panel. This list is not alphabetical.

You can select a single web site or virtual directory. Selecting a web site is considered recursive. Double-clicking a web site displays a list of the virtual directories in the web site.

Exported/Internal File Format

All IIS types use an XML format to store their section of the metabase. The present XML format does not support metabase properties of type NTACL (such as AdminACL). Any properties of this type that are encountered while reading from or writing to the metabase are ignored. Also, properties of type IPSec (such as IPSecurity) are written out as serialized objects. Those objects are not human-readable during either direct examination, or as difference results.

Differences

During a snapshot, the current state of the metabase is exported into an XML file. During an M-I difference, the metabase is re-exported and compared against the original XML file. The standard XML differentiator is used to generate differences between these files.

Error Conditions

IIS Web Site or Virtual Directory Settings

Represents the settings for an IIS web site or virtual directory. Please note that this component type only contains the settings for a web site or virtual directory. The content on the web site must be checked in as a separate resource.

Installing an IIS Web Site or Virtual Directory

Installation occurs by reading the XML file and importing the file into the target system metabase. If a web site with the same name exists, the old web site is overwritten. If multiple web sites have the same name on the system, the first matching web site is removed and overwritten.

Special cases include untyped keys or nodes, and SSL certificates, which are not deployed. The relevant settings for SSL certificates in IIS (SSLCertHash and SSLStoreName) are preserved during a deployment if they exist on the target system. If relevant SSL settings do not exist, settings are not added.

To bring up a secure site after the site is deployed or redeployed, you must restart IIS.

Uninstalling an IIS Web Site or Virtual Directory

The entire web site is removed on the target system. All virtual directories in the web site are removed regardless of whether they were installed by the provisioning software. If the settings are just for a virtual directory, only that directory is removed, not its containing site. The matching for uninstall is done by name, so the first web site with the same name found on the system will be uninstalled. Once this process is complete, the XML file used during installation is removed.