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IIS 7.0 : Editing Configuration - Deciding Where to Place Configuration

4/18/2011 11:15:17 AM
The IIS 7.0 configuration system provides a lot of flexibility for editing server configuration. Because the configuration is stored in plain-text XML files and uses a well-structured, human-readable syntax, you can edit it manually using Notepad or your favorite text editor. In fact, many people prefer this approach when editing configuration for distributed web.config files located within the site’s directory structure.

In addition to enabling configuration to be edited by hand, IIS 7.0 provides a complete administration stack that offers tools and APIs for editing configuration. This includes the IIS Manager, a completely redesigned GUI task-based experience for managing most of the IIS 7.0 configuration. It also includes the Appcmd command line tool, which you can use to edit configuration quickly from the command line. Finally, it includes several administrative scripts and APIs for editing configuration programmatically, including the IIS 7.0 configuration COM objects that can be accessed from native C++ programs (called the Application Host Administration objects or AHADMIN) and Windows scripts, a WMI provider, and new Microsoft.Web.Administration APIs for managing configuration from .NET programs.

Note

Where possible, use tools to manipulate IIS 7.0 configuration instead of changing configuration by hand. This is much easier and provides protection against generating incorrect configuration.


In fact, you should choose to use tools to edit the configuration on the server, because doing so ensures that you are interacting correctly with the underlying complexity of the configuration system and guarantees that the configuration is written using the correct syntax. The IIS Manager is a great way to do this, because it provides a simplified task-based view of many IIS 7.0 features, so you don’t need to understand their configuration structure.

However, there are times when you need to specify configuration by hand or use one of the lower-level tools like Appcmd or programmatic interfaces like the Microsoft.Web.Administration namespace provided in .NET. In this case, you do need to understand the structure of configuration sections and inheritance behavior of the configuration hierarchy in order to do this correctly. In the remainder of this section, we will discuss the basics of editing IIS 7.0 configuration that will help you to do it correctly.

Note

Use Appcmd to edit configuration in situations in which IIS Manager does not expose the desired configuration functionality. Appcmd can perform most configuration tasks you can do by hand, and it offers the benefit of additional validation. It also allows you to perform configuration tasks in an automated fashion on other machines if needed.


Caution

Before modifying configuration, always make sure you have a backup of the current state so you can come back to it if necessary.


Deciding Where to Place Configuration

The IIS 7.0 configuration hierarchy contains multiple configuration files, comprising the .NET configuration files, applicationHost.config, and distributed web.config files in your site directory structure. This hierarchy allows you to map configuration to a URL namespace on your server by placing it in the right configuration file. When the server reads configuration for a particular Web site or URL, it merges all configuration files along the configuration path, merging the configuration specified in them to achieve the effective set of configuration for a given path.

Because of the configuration merging, configuration specified at a higher configuration path always inherits to all child paths, unless it is overridden lower down. For example, configuration specified in applicationHost.config is inherited by all sites and URLs on the server, unless it is overridden in their respective web.config files.

Table 1 indicates where you may chose to place configuration in order to apply it to the desired scope.

Table 1. Placement of Configuration
Configuration ForPlace In
Entire serverapplicationHost.config
A specific siteweb.config in the site’s physical root directory
A specific applicationweb.config in the application’s physical root directory
A specific virtual directoryweb.config in the virtual directory’s physical root
A specific URLIf the URL corresponds to a physical directory, in web.config in that directory; otherwise, in any existing parent web.config file with a location tag for the specific URL

When specifying configuration at a specific site or URL, you always have a choice of specifying configuration in a distributed web.config file corresponding to the URL or placing it in a configuration file higher in the hierarchy (for example, applicationHost.config) and applying it to the specific URL by using location tags. Both have advantages and disadvantages you need to consider.

Using location tags can allow you to place all configuration in a single location, instead of multiple web.config configuration files which may be harder to discover and manage. Also, if configuration is locked at a particular configuration path (for example, configuration that should only be set by server administrators is typically locked in applicationHost.config), you are forced to use location tags at that path in order to apply configuration to child paths. However, placing configuration in distributed web.config files allows the site/application/directory to become portable and xcopy-deployed to other servers or places in the site structure without having to set any configuration elsewhere or requiring administrative privileges on the server. This is a very powerful ability.

Finally, a note about configuration delegation—not all configuration sections are allowed to be specified in distributed web.config files by default. It is up to the server administrator to decide which configuration sections are delegated and to unlock them in applicationHost.config. This may impact your ability to run applications that specify configuration in distributed web.config files, generating errors if locked configuration is specified.

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