Available Role Services in IIS 7.0

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 is the Web server role in Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008. The Web server has been redesigned in IIS 7 to enable you to customize a server by adding or removing modules to meet your specific needs. Modules are individual features that the server uses to process requests. For example, IIS uses authentication modules to authenticate client credentials, and cache modules to manage cache activity.

Windows Server 2008 has all the IIS features you need to support hosting of Web content in production environments. Windows Vista also has IIS features, but the available features depend on the version of Windows Vista. IIS in Windows Vista is ideal for those who want to build and test Web applications.

Available IIS Features

The tables in this section display the availability of features in each version of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Server Core

When you install Windows Server 2008, you can perform a Server Core installation, which installs a minimal server installation of Windows Server 2008. For example, with this type of installation the traditional Windows interface is not installed, so you must configure the server from the command prompt. Although the Web Server role is available on a Server Core installation, some modules that rely on the .NET Framework and managed code are not. We call out these modules with an asterisk (*) in the following tables.

Availability of these features is described as:

• Default: The feature is selected by default when you install IIS on your computer, but you can decide not to install a feature if you do not need it.

• Available: The feature is available, but it is not selected by default when you install IIS on your computer. You can install the feature if you need it.

• Unavailable: The feature is unavailable and cannot be installed when you install IIS.

See the following tables to learn more about the availability of features in each version:

• Common HTTP Features

• Application Development Features

• Health and Diagnostics Features

• Security Features

• Performance Features

• Management Tools

• Windows® Process Activation Service

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Publishing Service Features

• Simultaneous Connection Limits

Common HTTP Features

Feature Name/ Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
Static Content Static Content lets the Web server publish static Web file formats, such as HTML pages and image files. Use Static Content to publish files on your Web server that users can then view using a Web browser.	Default	Default	Default	Unavailable
Default Document Default Document lets you configure a default file for the Web server to return when users do not specify a file in a URL. Default documents make it easier and more convenient for users to reach your Web site.	Default	Default	Default	Unavailable
Directory Browsing Directory Browsing lets users see the contents of a directory on your Web server. Use Directory Browsing to enable an automatically generated list of all directories and files available in a directory when users do not specify a file in a URL and default documents are either disabled or not configured.	Default	Default	Default	Unavailable
HTTP Errors HTTP Errors lets you customize the error messages returned to users’ browsers when the Web server detects a fault condition. Use HTTP errors to give users a better user experience when they run up against an error message. Consider providing users with an e-mail address for staff who can help them resolve the error.	Default	Default	Default	Default
HTTP Redirection HTTP Redirection provides support to redirect user requests to a specific destination. Use HTTP redirection whenever you want customers who might use one URL to actually end up at another URL. This is helpful in many situations, from renaming your Web site, to overcoming a domain name that is difficult to spell, or forcing clients to use the HTTPS protocol.	Default	Default	Default	Default

Application Development Features

Feature Name/ Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
ASP.NET ASP.NET provides a server side object-oriented programming environment for building Web sites and Web applications that use managed code. ASP.NET is not just a new version of ASP. ASP.NET provides a robust infrastructure for building Web applications, and it has been completely re-architected to provide a highly productive programming experience based on the .NET Framework.	Available *	Available	Available	Unavailable
.NET Extensibility .NET Extensibility lets managed code developers change, add, and extend Web server functionality in the request pipeline, the configuration, and the UI. Developers can use the familiar ASP.NET extensibility model and rich .NET APIs to build Web server features that are just as powerful as those written using the native C++ APIs.	Default *	Default	Default	Default
ASP Active Server Pages (ASP) provides a server side scripting environment for building Web sites and Web applications. ASP offers improved performance over CGI scripts by providing IIS with native support for both VBScript and JScript. Use ASP if you have existing applications that require ASP support. For new development, consider using ASP.NET.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
CGI Common Gateway Interface (CGI) defines how a Web server passes information to an external program. Typical uses might include using a Web form to collect information and then passing that information to a CGI script to be e-mailed somewhere else. Because CGI is a standard, CGI scripts can be written by using a variety of programming languages. The downside to using CGI is the performance overhead.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
ISAPI Extensions Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) Extensions provides support for dynamic Web content development using ISAPI extensions. An ISAPI extension runs when requested, just like any other static HTML file or dynamic ASP file. Since ISAPI applications are compiled code, they are processed much faster than ASP files or files that call COM+ components.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
ISAPI Filters Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) Filters provides support for Web applications that use ISAPI filters. ISAPI filters are files that can extend or change the functionality provided by IIS. An ISAPI filter reviews every request made to the Web server, until the filter finds one that it needs to process.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
Server-Side Includes Server Side Includes (SSI) is a scripting language that is used to generate HTML pages dynamically. The script runs on the server before the page is delivered to the client and typically involves inserting one file into another. For example, you might create an HTML navigation menu and use SSI to dynamically add it to all pages on a Web site.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable

* This module is not available on a Server Core installation.

Health and Diagnostics Features

Feature Name/ Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
HTTP Logging HTTP Logging provides logging of Web site activity for this server. When a loggable event (usually an HTTP transaction) occurs, IIS calls the selected logging module, which then writes to one of the logs stored in the file system of the Web server. These logs are kept in addition to those provided by the operating system.	Default	Default	Default	Default
Logging Tools Logging Tools provides infrastructure to manage Web server logs and automate common logging tasks.	Default	Default	Default	Default
Request Monitor Request Monitor provides infrastructure to monitor Web application health by capturing information about HTTP requests in an IIS worker process. Administrators and developers can use Request Monitor to understand which HTTP requests are executing in a worker process when the worker process has become unresponsive or very slow.	Default	Default	Default	Default
Tracing Tracing provides infrastructure to diagnose and troubleshoot Web applications. By using failed request tracing, you can troubleshoot difficult to capture events like poor performance or authentication-related failures. This feature buffers trace events for a request and only flushes them to disk if the request falls into a user-configured error condition.	Default	Default	Default	Default
Custom Logging Custom Logging provides support for logging Web server activity in a format that differs greatly from how IIS generates log files. Use Custom Logging to create your own logging module. Custom logging modules are added to IIS by registering a new COM component that implements ILogPlugin or ILogPluginEx.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
ODBC Logging ODBC Logging provides infrastructure that supports logging Web server activity to an ODBC-compliant database. By using a logging database, you can programmatically display and manipulate data from the logging database on an HTML page. You might do this to search logs for specific events that you want to monitor.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable

Security Features

Feature Name/Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
Basic Authentication Basic Authentication offers strong browser compatibility. Appropriate for small internal networks, this authentication method is rarely used on the public Internet. Its major disadvantage is that it transmits passwords across the network using an easily decrypted algorithm. If intercepted, these passwords are simple to decipher. Use SSL with Basic authentication.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
Windows Authentication Windows Authentication is a low cost authentication solution for internal Web sites. This authentication scheme allows administrators in a Windows domain to take advantage of the domain infrastructure for authenticating users. Do not use Windows authentication if users who must be authenticated access your Web site from behind firewalls and proxy servers.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable
Digest Authentication Digest Authentication works by sending a password hash to a Windows domain controller to authenticate users. When you need improved security over Basic authentication, consider using Digest authentication, especially if users who must be authenticated access your Web site from behind firewalls and proxy servers.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable
Client Certificate Mapping Authentication Client Certificate Mapping Authentication uses client certificates to authenticate users. A client certificate is a digital ID from a trusted source. IIS offers two types of authentication using client certificate mapping. This type uses Active Directory to offer one-to-one certificate mappings across multiple Web servers.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable
IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication uses client certificates to authenticate users. A client certificate is a digital ID from a trusted source. IIS offers two types of authentication using client certificate mapping. This type uses IIS to offer one-to-one or many-to-one certificate mapping, and offers better performance over Client Certificate Mapping authentication.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable
URL Authorization URL Authorization allows you to create rules that restrict access to Web content. You can bind these rules to users, groups, or HTTP header verbs. By configuring URL authorization rules, you can prevent users who are not members of certain groups from accessing content or interacting with Web pages.	Available	Available	Available	Available
Request Filtering Request Filtering screens all incoming requests to the server and filters these requests based on rules set by the administrator. Many malicious attacks share common characteristics, such as very long URLs, or requests for an unusual action. By filtering requests, you can try to reduce the impact of these types of attacks.	Default	Default	Default	Default
IP and Domain Restrictions IP and Domain Restrictions allow you to enable or deny content based on the originating IP address or domain name of the request. Instead of using groups, roles, or NTFS file system permissions to control access to content, you can specify IP addresses or domain names.	Available	Available	Available	Available

Performance Features

Feature Name/Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
Static Content Compression Static Content Compression provides infrastructure to configure HTTP compression of static content. This provides more efficient use of bandwidth. Unlike dynamic responses, compressed static responses can be cached without degrading CPU resources.	Default	Default	Default	Default
Dynamic Content Compression Dynamic Content Compression provides infrastructure to configure HTTP compression of dynamic content. Enabling dynamic compression always gives you more efficient use of bandwidth, but if your server's processor utilization is already very high, the CPU load imposed by dynamic compression might make your site perform more slowly.	Available	Available	Available	Available

Management Tools

Feature Name/Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
IIS Management Console IIS Manager provides infrastructure to manage IIS 7 by using a graphical user interface. You can use IIS Manager to manage a local or remote Web server that runs IIS 7. To manage Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or File Transfer Protocol (FTP), you must install and use IIS Manager from IIS 6.0.	Default *	Default	Default	Unavailable
IIS Management Scripts and Tools IIS Management Scripts and Tools provide infrastructure to manage an IIS 7 Web server programmatically by using commands in a Command Prompt window or by running scripts. You can use these tools when you want to automate commands in batch files or when you do not want to incur the overhead of managing IIS by using the graphical user interface.	Available	Available	Available	Available
Management Service Management Service provides infrastructure to configure the IIS 7 user interface, IIS Manager, for remote management in IIS 7.	Available *	Available	Available	Unavailable
IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility provides forward compatibility for your applications and scripts that use Admin Base Object (ABO) and Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) APIs. This lets you use existing IIS 6.0 scripts to manage an IIS 7 Web server.	Available	Available	Available	Available
IIS Metabase Compatibility IIS 6.0 Metabase Compatibility provides infrastructure to query and configure the metabase so that you can run applications and scripts written in earlier versions of IIS that used the Admin Base Object (ABO) or Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) APIs.	Available	Available	Available	Available
IIS 6 WMI Compatibility IIS 6.0 WMI Compatibility provides Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) scripting interfaces to programmatically manage and automate tasks for IIS 7 by using a set of scripts that you create in the WMI provider. You can manage sites with this service by using the WMI CIM Studio, WMI Event Registration, WMI Event Viewer, and WMI Object Browser tools.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
IIS 6 Scripting Tools IIS 6.0 Scripting Tools provides the ability to continue using IIS 6.0 scripting tools that were built to manage IIS 6.0 in IIS 7. This is especially useful if your applications and scripts use ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) or Active Directory Service Interface (ADSI) APIs. IIS 6.0 Scripting Tools requires the WAS Configuration API.	Available	Available	Available	Unavailable
IIS 6 Management Console IIS 6.0 Manager provides infrastructure for administration of remote IIS 6.0 servers from this computer.	Available *	Available	Available	Unavailable

* This module is not available on a Server Core installation.

Windows® Process Activation Service Features

Feature Name/Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
Process Model Process Model hosts Web and WCF services. Introduced with IIS 6.0, the process model is a new architecture that features rapid failure protection, health monitoring, and recycling. WAS Process Model removes the dependency on HTTP.	Default	Default	Default	Default
.NET Environment .NET Environment supports managed code activation in the process model.	Available *	Available	Available	Available
Configuration APIs Configuration APIs enable applications that are built using the .NET Framework to configure WAS programmatically. This lets the application developer automatically configure WAS settings when the application runs instead of requiring the administrator to manually configure these settings.	Available *	Available	Available	Available

* This module is not available on a Server Core installation.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Publishing Service Features

Feature Name/Description	Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
FTP Server FTP Server provides infrastructure to create an FTP site where users can upload and download files using the FTP protocol and appropriate client software. FTP uses TCP/IP to distribute files in a manner similar to how HTTP works to distribute Web pages. An FTP site is especially useful for offering customers the ability to upload files.	Available	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable
FTP Management Console FTP Management Snap-in provides the ability to manage an FTP site. IIS 7 uses IIS Manager in IIS 6.0 for FTP server management. You can use the FTP management snap-in to manage a local or remote FTP server.	Available *	Available	Unavailable	Unavailable

* This module is not available on a Server Core installation.

Simultaneous Connection Limits

Windows Server 2008 Editions	Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Editions	Windows Vista Home Premium Edition	Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter Editions
Unlimited	10	3	3

See Also

Other Resources

Server Core Installation Option (online)