Windows Server 2003 : Advanced Internet Information Services - Site-Level Administration & Directory-Level Administration

Site-Level Administration

Site-level administration of IIS differs considerably in its tasks depending on which of the four IIS services you are dealing with: WWW, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP. As a result, there is a detailed discussion of the various tasks involved in administering different kinds of sites (virtual servers) . (In other words, to learn how to administer WWW sites, go to the “Managing WWW Sites” section.)

Site-level settings for a newly created Web or FTP site are inherited from the server-level (Web Sites or FTP Sites node) properties. You can, however, modify settings at the site level and have those settings override the settings configured at the server level. Another important point to consider is that site-level settings are inherited by all virtual and physical directories and files within the site (that is, within the virtual server). This is true whether you are considering WWW, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP sites.

A sample site-level settings dialog box is shown in Figure 1.

Directory-Level Administration

Directory-level settings are inherited by all files within the directory. They also override those configured at the site and server levels. Directory-level settings apply to both virtual and physical directories within a particular Web or FTP site.

Directory-level properties are simply a subset of site-level properties. In fact, the WWW service master properties for a particular IIS machine are configured through a Master Properties page that has nine tabs: Web Site, Performance, ISAPI Filters, Home Directory, Documents, Directory Security, HTTP Headers, Custom Errors, and Service. Also, the Properties window for a particular Web site, such as the Default Web Site, has a set of tabs comparable to the set in the server’s Master Properties window, replacing the Service tab with a Server Extensions 2002 tab.

Similarly, as Figure 2 shows, the Properties window for a particular virtual (or physical) directory within a Web site has a subset of the tabs in the Web site’s Properties window: Directory (versus Home Directory), Documents, Directory Security, HTTP Headers, and Custom Errors. The following list summarizes the kinds of settings you can configure at the directory level:

• Location of content for the directory (local directory, network share, or redirection to a URL)

• Application settings (application name, starting point, execute permissions, and so on)

• Default documents and document footers

• Anonymous access and authentication control

• IP address and domain name restrictions

• Secure communications using SSL

• Content expiration

• Custom HTTP headers

• Content rating

• MIME mappings

• Custom HTTP errors