Using Commerce Server and IIS
The system administrator, who is responsible for the day-to-day administration of Commerce Server 2000, is typically also responsible for administering Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0.
Although Commerce Server runs on top of IIS, the relationship between IIS and Commerce Server objects is not strictly hierarchical. The total set of properties that affect a Commerce Server site includes properties that are:
Set at the IIS level only.
Set within Commerce Server only, independent from IIS.
Inherited from IIS.
You use the IIS snap-in to manage Web site access permissions and security, performance, directories and paths, the identification of Web site names, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and ports.
You use Commerce Server Manager to perform the following tasks:
Manage global and site Commerce Server resources, configure Commerce Server-specific properties, configure database connection strings for resources, and add and remove Web servers from an application.
At the Commerce Server application level, you can specify the IIS application path, IIS Web site, non-secure and secure host names, and IP port and secure IP port. You can also configure properties to enable HTTPS, enable Autocookie, and select an authentication filter. These properties apply to all of the Web servers used by the application.
When you change port properties in Commerce Server, they are not automatically changed in IIS. The following port properties in IIS are the port properties that are actually used:
At the application level
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port
At each Web server
Internet Protocol (IP) address
Log file path
Log file period
If you change the port properties in IIS, you must also change them in Commerce Server.
Web server properties are inherited from IIS and stored in the Administration database for ease of access. If the IIS properties change, then you need to synchronize the Administration database either by manually updating the new values, or by clicking the Synchronize values button on the Web Servers tab in the ApplicationProperties dialog box. For more information, see Configuring an Application.
When you click the Synchronize values button, Commerce Server synchronizes the properties at the application level and the properties for all the Web server objects below the application. For the properties at the application level (TCP port and SSL port), Commerce Server reads the values for the first Web server. It assumes that the Web servers have all been configured identically, which must be the case for a Web farm to operate correctly.
At the Commerce Server Web server level, you can view and change properties for the IP address, log file path, and log file period.
The following figure shows the objects on the IIS and Commerce Server Manager console trees, and the relationships among these objects.
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See Also
Adding a Non-Commerce Application and Web Server
Example A: Installing on a Four-Computer Clustered Configuration
Example B: Installing on a Three-Computer Non-Clustered Configuration