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European IIS 8 Hosting - HostForLIFE.eu :: Dynamic Compression Issue in IIS 8.5

clock December 6, 2019 11:49 by author Peter

Windows Server 2012 R2 comes with IIS 8.5, and in this release an issue has been found in relation to the Dynamic Compression module.  The module sets the “Vary” header which is used to specify caching properties that the browser uses to determine whether the response should be cached or not. 

In IIS 8.0 and earlier, the Dynamic Compression module was overwriting the Vary header with the value “Accept-Encoding”, and as it happens this is the correct value to ensure that dynamic content is correctly cached – but – according to IIS it should be appending this value to the existing value and not overwriting it.

As it happens, this was supposed to be fixed in IIS 8.5 but the fix appears to be broken.  In IIS 8.5 (which ships with Windows Server 2012 R2) the Vary header is being set to “*” and the “Accept-Encoding” from the Dynamic Compression module is not appended.  The result of this is that no dynamic content is being cached by the browser.

Workaround

Thankfully there is an easy workaround in IIS 8.5 for this:

1. Select an IIS site, and go to Configuration Editor

2. Select system.web/caching/outputCache section, then set the omitVaryStar property to true

Setting this value results in the Vary header being returned with a value of “Accept-Encoding” and the browser then caches the dynamic content.



European IIS Hosting - HostForLIFE.eu :: How to Create Multiple 301 Redirects

clock December 15, 2016 08:33 by author Scott

Some of our clients sometimes ask about how to create URL Rewrite on their site. Previously, we have written about how to redirect HTTP to HTTPS in IIS. In this tutorial, we will advise how to create multiple redirection with a URL Rewrite Map.

URL Rewrite Module with IIS 7/IIS 8

Now there’s an easier solution, and one that offers better performance.  Starting with IIS 7 one can implement different kinds of url rewriting and redirecting with ease by using the URL Rewrite Module. The various rules can be configured using the IIS 7 Manager GUI or by directly editing the web.config. To open the URL Rewrite Module simply double click the URL Rewrite icon on your site properties as shown below.

From there you will be able to maintain your existing rules or add new ones as seen in this picture.

This is a pretty easy way to create server-side rules for rewriting and redirecting, but what happens when you have 30 or 40 legacy URLs that need to be redirected to new pages? Do you have to enter each one manually? Of course not. The solution to that is to use a URL Rewrite Map.

URL Rewrite Map

By using a URL Rewrite Map it has never been easier to create and maintain multiple 301 redirects for different pages on your web site.  The rewrite rules are stored in the <system.webServer> section of your web.config so you can quickly make changes as needed.

Here is all the code you need to accomplish this:

<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rewriteMaps>
<rewriteMap name=”Redirects”>
<add key=”/test.aspx” value=”/test2.aspx” />
<add key=”/aboutus.aspx” value=”/about” />
</rewriteMap>
</rewriteMaps>
<rules>
<rule name=”Redirect rule1 for Redirects”>
<match url=”.*” />
<conditions>
<add input=”{Redirects:{REQUEST_URI}}” pattern=”(.+)” />
</conditions>
<action type=”Redirect” url=”{C:1}” appendQueryString=”false” />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>

In the example above I’m performing a 301 redirect on the test.aspx file to test2.aspx file. There’s also a 301 redirect for the aboutus.aspx file to folder called /about, however, in this case it’s important to note that the /about folder will also need a default page or else a 404 error will result.

As you add more URLs to your Rewrite Map you’ll notice that your web.config can become a bit cluttered. The solution to this will be to store the redirect rules in an external file. Let’s call this file myrewritemaps.config. This file will now contain this code block:

<rewriteMaps>
<rewriteMap name=”Redirects”>
<add key=”/test.aspx” value=”/test2.aspx” />
<add key=”/aboutus.aspx” value=”/about” />
</rewriteMap>
</rewriteMaps>

In your web.config you add the following line of code under the <rewrite> section referencing the external config file:

<rewriteMaps configSource=”myrewritemaps.config” />

Your web.config will now look nice and clean like this:

<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rewriteMaps configSource=”myrewritemaps.config” />
<rules>
<rule name=”Redirect rule1 for Redirects”>
<match url=”.*” />
<conditions>
<add input=”{Redirects:{REQUEST_URI}}” pattern=”(.+)” />
</conditions>
<action type=”Redirect” url=”{C:1}” appendQueryString=”false” />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>

There is no real limit on how many URLs can be configured for redirecting with the URL Rewrite Map.  You should perform regular search engine analysis to see when the new URLs have been picked up. Once the old URL is no longer indexed and traffic has dropped off you could remove it from your map.



European IIS 8.5 Hosting – HostForLIFE.eu :: How to Redirect HTTP to HTTPS in IIS

clock August 6, 2014 08:25 by author Onit

Prerequisite

If you are using SSL on your IIS 8.5 (from 7.5 or greater) server for some time now; to get here you had to do a few things:

  1. You scrubbed your site content to ensure all URLs are using their relative form, e.g. “src=’//images\image.png” or explicitly reference the use of HTTPS.
  2. You have tested for certificate and SSL related problems like mixed content, appropriately tagging cookies as secure.
  3. You have ensured that you follow the best practices guidance for SSL server configuration and verified you get an A on  SSLLabs.

there are a few things left for you to do, the most obvious being redirecting all traffic to the SSL version of your site! You should probably monitor your CPU usage during your peak so to ensure you have some headroom. This isn’t likely to be a problem as most web-servers are not CPU bound but it’s always good to check.

 

Once you know you are OK then it’s just a matter of deciding which approach to use, you have two choices:

  1. Dynamically rewriting via code in your ASPX pages
  2. Using the IIS URL Rewrite  module

If you are familiar with the IIS configuration you’re probably asking yourself what about the “Require secure channel (SSL)” option in the IIS MMC? Unfortunately this doesn’t do redirecting it only requires the use of SSL on a given site/folder/file.

So how do you decide which approach to use? The answer to that question is dependent on both your environment and personal preference, but this time we will show how to do using the method two

IIS URL Rewrite Module

since in this article we will showed you to use the second choice, using the IIS URL Rewrite module, you can check the steps below

This approach has a number of benefits, for one having this module allows you to leverage remapping for other purposes also for example maintaining old links that have SEO value. From a security standpoint it’s also a good approach as it keeps this decision one of policy that is enforced in a central place.

To use the URL rewrite approach you will need to do the following:

  1. Install the URL Rewrite module (x86, x64).
  2. Add a rule to rewrite all HTTP URLs to HTTPS.
    1. Open your “web.config” with your favorite editor.
    2. Find the “configuration\system.webserver\rewrite\rules” section.
    3. Add the following text block:
      <rule name=”Redirect to HTTPS” stopProcessing=”true”>
      <match url=”(.*)” />
      <conditions>
      <add input=”{HTTPS}” pattern=”^OFF$” />
      </conditions>
      <action type=”Redirect” url=”https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}” redirectType=”Permanent” />
      </rule>
  3. Restart IIS

Now you can go to your website over HTTP and you will see you are redirected to the HTTPS instance of the site.



IIS 8.5 Hosting Netherlands - HostForLIFE.eu :: New Features IIS 8.5

clock February 7, 2014 12:06 by author Peter

Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.5 is an extensible web server created by Microsoft for use with Windows NT family. IIS 8.5 is included in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. This version includes Idle worker-Process page-out, Dynamic Site Activation, Enhanced Logging, ETW logging, and Automatic Certificate Rebind.

IIS 8.5 has several improvements related to performance in large-scale scenarios, such as those used by commercial hosting providers and Microsoft's own cloud offerings. It also has several added features related to logging and troubleshooting. The new features are:

  • Idle worker-Process page-out – a function to suspend idle site to reduce the memory footprint of idle sites. In IIS 8.5, the Administrator has the option of suspending an idle worker process rather than terminating it. A suspended worker process remains alive but is paged-out to disk, reducing the system resources it consumes. When a user accesses the site again, the worker process wakes up from suspension and is quickly available.
  • Dynamic Site Activation – a feature that registers listening queues only to sites that have received requests.
  • Enhanced Logging – Now you can customize the logging to store request headers, response headers and server variables. The customization can be used to get information such as the IP addresses of connecting clients when the network has a load balance.
  • ETW logging – Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) provides application programmers the ability to start and stop event tracing sessions, instrument an application to provide trace events, and consume trace events. Trace events contain an event header and provider-defined data that describes the current state of an application or operation. You can use the events to debug an application and perform capacity and performance analysis.
  • Automatic Certificate Rebind – a feature that detects when a site certificate has been renewed, and automatically rebinds the site to it

 



About HostForLIFE.eu

HostForLIFE.eu is European Windows Hosting Provider which focuses on Windows Platform only. We deliver on-demand hosting solutions including Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for companies of all sizes.

We have offered the latest Windows 2016 Hosting, ASP.NET Core 2.2.1 Hosting, ASP.NET MVC 6 Hosting and SQL 2017 Hosting.


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