IIS provides a new command-line tool, AppCmd.exe, to configure and query objects on your Web server, and to return output in text or XML. In this article, I will explain how to perform common IIS administrative tasks such as creating new sites, stopping/starting services, and viewing status of the site.

AppCmd.exe allows you to perform just about all the typical management functions you would want to perform using the CLI instead of the GUI. For example, here are some of the things that AppCmd.exe can do:

•     Start and stop IIS web sites
•     Create IIS websites, applications, application pools, and virtual directories
•     Show running IIS processes and list currently executing requests
•     Import, export, and search IIS ASP.NET configurations

Five ways that you can use AppCmd.exe to make your IIS website administration easier:

Sure, you can do just about everything in the IIS management MMC (GUI) that you can do with AppCmd.exe at the command line but GUI interfaces also have their disadvantages. To name a few, with a GUI you cannot do repetitive tasks quickly (like with a Windows Desktop Shortcut) nor can you use output from one AppCmd.exe output and send it to an AppCmd Action. Here are 5 ways that using AppCmd.exe can make your IIS website administration easier:

1. Start and Stop IIS websites from the command line

This is actually very simple. If you don’t know the name of your sites, just do:

Appcmd list sites

Now that you know what sites you have, you can start and stop your IIS web sites like this:
Appcmd start sites “Default Web Site” (or whatever site you want to start)

2. Add a new website

Adding a new website is easy. Just use:
Appcmd add sites /name:”Dave’s Site” /id:12 /bindings:http://mysite.com:80

Like this:

While this may add a new website, that website may not be as complete as a site added in the GUI unless all command options are added then an application is added for it. To get a more fully functioning IIS site, use the following two commands:
AppCmd add site /name:ddsite /id:99 /bindings:http/*:81: /physicalPath:C:\ddsite
AppCmd add app /site.name:DDSite /path:/ddapp /physicalPath:C:\sites\ddsite

3. Listing objects that meet certain information

Using the list command is easy. I showed you how to list our websites running on the server in #1, above. Notice in the output how you can see that the sites are running or not (the sites state). You can also list all objects (like sites) that meet certain criteria. For example, this command lists all sites that are stopped. Here is an example:

4. Backing up you IIS configuration

AppCmd.exe can backup your IIS configuration using the add backup command. You can also list your commands with the list backup command the and the restore backup can put your backup data back where it needs to go with the restore backup command.

Below, you see me backing up my IIS configuration then listing out what backups were available after that.

5. Report on IIS configurations

AppCmd has the power to report on your IIS configurations and export that configuration to a text file. To do this, just run:
Appcmd list site “sitename” /config
Here is what the output looks like:

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In this tutorial, I’ll explain how to install WCF in IIS 8.0. So in order to host our WCF Service in IIS, use the following simple step-by-step approach. First, Add a website to our solution. select the “ASP.NET Empty web Site” example. For web location, select “HTTP” rather than “File System” and provide the path and press the “OK” button.

Next step, add the Reference of the StudentService project to our web site, in other words StudentIISHost.

Next, Add a reference of System.ServiceModel to the web site. And then, Add a new .svc file to our web site project as.

Then write the following configuration for System.ServiceModel in the web.config :
<system.serviceModel> 
     <behaviors> 
           <serviceBehaviors> 
                  <behavior name=”StudentServiceBehavior”> 
                       <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled=”true”/> 
                       <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults=”false”/> 
                  </behavior> 
           </serviceBehaviors> 
      </behaviors> 
      <services> 
          <service behaviorConfiguration=”StudentServiceBehavior” name=”StudentService.StudentService”> 
           <endpoint address=”http://localhost/StudentIISHost/MyStudentHost.svc” 
                 binding=”wsHttpBinding” 
                 contract=”StudentService.IStudentService”> 
            <identity> 
                <dns value=”localhost”/> 
            </identity> 
          </endpoint> 
          <endpoint address=”mex” 
                binding=”mexHttpBinding” 
                contract=”IMetadataExchange”/> 
          </service> 
       </services> 
   </system.serviceModel> 

Finally, Access the hosted WCF Service, in other words StudentService using the following path.
http://localhost/StudentIISHost/MyStudentHost.svc

I hope this WCF Tutorial will help you to understand the implementation for hosting a WCF Service in Internet Information Services (IIS).

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While publishing Web API using Visual Studio, you may run into some errors. This article helps to provide the solution to the possible errors that will occur. When you publish the Web API from Visual Studio, the following error may possibly come up.

Output class library not set error while hosting web API
OutputPath property is not set for project 'Company.Directory.Web.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration=Release Platform='AnyCPU'. You may be seeing this message because you are trying to build a project without a solution file, and have specified a non-default Configuration or Platform that doesn't exist for this project.

Solution

When you try to publish for the first time, one of the reasons for the above error to pop up is due to the incorrect settings in .csproj.user file of the solution.

Open the .csproj.user file in the solution and change the settings in the file.

Add the following code in the file.
    <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' "> 
        <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols> 
        <DebugType>full</DebugType> 
        <Optimize>false</Optimize> 
        <OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath> 
        <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants> 
        <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport> 
        <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel> 
    </PropertyGroup> 
    <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' "> 
        <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType> 
        <Optimize>true</Optimize> 
        <OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath> 
        <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants> 
        <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport> 
        <WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel> 
    </PropertyGroup> 
    <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Dev|AnyCPU'"> 
        <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols> 
        <OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath> 
        <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants> 
        <DebugType>full</DebugType> 
        <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget> 
        <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport> 
        <CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRuleSets>false</CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRuleSets> 
        <CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRules>false</CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRules> 
        <DeployIisAppPath>Port 80/directory/dev</DeployIisAppPath> 
    </PropertyGroup> 

Solution to 500.19 internal server error while hosting Web API

Solution

The above error will pop up when you do not have the permission to access the folder/web.config file.

•     In Windows Explorer, locate the web.config file that is associated with the Web site.
•     Right-click the web.config file
•     Click Properties.
•     Click the Security tab, and then click Edit.
•     Click Add.
•     In the Enter the object names to select box, IUSR, click Check Names, and then click OK.
•     Click to select the Read check box, and then click OK.
•     In the Web.config Properties dialog box, click OK.

Solution to 500.21 internal server error while hosting Web API

Solution

One of the reasons for the error 500.21 Internal Server Error to pop up, is when ASP.NET is not installed completely in your system.
    Run the command prompt as administrator.
    Type the line in the command prompt below any one.

    %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -i
    or
    %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -I

Solution to login for application pool access error is denied while hosting Web API

Solution

Create the application pool in IIS by selecting the .NET version which your project supports. When creating the site in the default application in IIS for Web API, select the application pool which you have created. The above error will pop up if the application pool which you have created has a built in account selected.

For reference - go to: "Advanced Setting->Process->Identity” of the application pool which you have created. Change the application pool identity to custom account and click on set button to provide the account credentials. Once you have set the setting, refresh/reset IIS to resolve the above error.

Access Denied Error while hosting Web API

Solution
The above error will pop up if the solution directory (folder) doesn’t have required permissions.
To resolve the issue follow the steps given in “500.19 : internal server error”.

In this post, let me tell you about how to configure IIS to require SSL on both Federation Servers. First step, open the Administrative Tools from the Start menu as shown on the following picture:

And then, in the Administrative Tools many options will be available, among these options one will be for IIS Manager. Double-click on this option to open it as shown on the below picture:

The IIS Manager Wizard will open. On the left hand side will be the Connections Pane.

Next step, expand the Server Name available under the Connection Pane, on expanding an option will appear named "Sites", again expand this option. This will bring the default Website under the IIS.

Click on this default Website, on clicking an option will come in the center Pane named SSL Settings, double-click on it to open it.

Now, check the "Require SSL" and then select on the "Accept Client Certificate".

Go to the Actions Pane and then select on the "Apply" button to apply the changes made.

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Now, I want to do the same thing, but this time, using PowerShell. We can easily achieve this with the help of PowerShell and typing a few simple commands.

Before we begin with DHCP installation process, first we need to make sure that it’s not installed in our Server 2016. We can verify this in two ways., which are given below.

• Using Server Manager.
• Using PowerShell.

As you can see below, I opened my Server Manager to check (Left side , under Dashboard), if DHCP is already installed, as we can see in the screenshot given below, DHCP Server roles are not installed yet.

Server Manager
Let’s verify this, using PowerShell. All you need to do is, just open your PowerShell and type the command given below.

Get-WindowsFeature

You can notice in the screenshot given above, install Sate for DHCP says “Available”, which means that it’s available for the installation and it’s not installed yet. Thus, we can continue with our installation process..

To install this DHCP server role using PowerShell, we need to use the command given below.

Install-WindowsFeature -Name ‘DHCP’
After installing this DHCP Server role, type the commands given below to install DHCP Management Tools.

We have successfully installed DHCP Server role and all the required tools to manage it. We can verify this in two ways. We can go back to Server Manager to see, if there is a DHCP Server role, the other way is suing PowerShell…Let’s first verify this, using Server Manager.

Go to —> Server Manager and check for DHCP under Roles and Server Groups (See the screenshot given below.)

We can also verify this using PowerShell, using the command given below.
Get-WindowsFeature.

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A customer was getting errror when utilizing PUT/POST/DELETE verbs on their web application as of late. The error looks like this:
<h2>405 - HTTP verb used to access this page is not allowed.</h2>
<h3>The page you are looking for cannot be displayed because an invalid method (HTTP verb) was used to attempt access</h3>

After some troubleshooting the error was disengaged to the way that WebDav was installed on the server and was catching those requests for its own service use.

Instead of removing Webdav from the server, we made a go at searching for an alternate solution. Thankfully somebody on Twitter comprehended the issue and gave an illustration of changes to make to the customer's web.config record with a specific end goal to disable (remove) the Webdav module for simply that particular webpage without requiring any requiring managerial activities on the server.

The code updates to make to your web.config record to intention this error are:
<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="WebDAV" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
    </handlers>
    <modules>
      <remove name="WebDAVModule" />
    </modules>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

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I was working on a web application, and suddenly the application stopped running on the browser and I got this error message,

“Unable to connect to the configured development Web server. Failed to register URL http://localhost :57660/ for site “sandbox” application “/”. Error description: Access is denied. (0x80070005)”

I tried many things like restarting Visual Studio and running Visual Studio as administrator but nothing worked. Finally, after spending a few hours on it I got the solution, so here I am sharing the solution.

Open windows registry and browse parameters in HTTP where you can see what URLs are allowed to be bound to services without admin privileges. The parameter is called ListenOnlyList and it needs to be set to the address that exists on your machine.

You need to configure this parameter by running the following in the administrative command prompt:

 
Once IP address is successfully added, you can see ListenOnlyList added in the registry with correct value.

Now run your web application again. I hope that will resolve your problem.

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We saw as problems URL Canonicalization can be solved in a declarative means a component of IIS, called URL Rewrite Module, which can be configured by specifying the appropriate rules of web.config. Another typical requirement in the management of a website is to make sure that applications that involve sensitive data (such as a page for payment by credit card) are carried out using the HTTPS protocol. How can we manage, however, requests that are received incorrectly using HTTP? A first solution may be to set the flag RequireSSL IIS for the particular folder that we want to protect (or maybe of all the site), as shown below:

The effect of this setting is that if a user visits the page via HTTP, IIS will raise 403.4 HTTP status code (Forbidden), displaying the standard error (or a custom version, if specified):

An alternative certainly more pleasant for the user is that instead of automatically redirected to the HTTPS address and, for this purpose, we can exploit once again the URL Redirect Module, by setting a rule similar to the following:

<rule name="ToHttps" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url="(.*)" />
  <conditions>
    <add input="{URL}" pattern="(secure/.*)" />
    <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="ON" negate="true" />
  </conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" url="https://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>

It applies to all addresses in input:

• Pointing to a folder called secure
• They are not using HTTPS

Hopefully we can eliminate the first condition, if we want the rule applies to the entire website and not to a particular folder. The final effect, specified in the node Action, is to perform a Redirect to the same page, but with the correct protocol.

Sometimes you may also need the opposite, ie postponing from HTTPS to HTTP. A typical example is when the SSL certificate covers only a subdomain of our site (for example secure.miosito.com) and therefore we want all the other pages are open in HTTP. In this case the rule to be created is very similar to the previous one:

<rule name="ToHttp" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url="(.*)" />
  <conditions>
    <add input="{URL}" pattern="(secure/.*)" negate="true" />
    <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="ON" />
  </conditions>
  <action type="Redirect" url="http://{HTTP_HOST}/{R:1}" />
</rule>

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In a few Web sites, if we type the Web site name, (like www.someurl.com) it will automatically load the page www.someurl.com/index.aspx. This is because of the setting of the “Default Document” feature of IIS. In this post we are going to discuss this feature of IIS.

1. Open IIS, type the command “inetmgr” in Run window.
   
2. Select “Default Document” and click.
   
3. In the feature view, we can see some type of Document orderly kept.
4. The top most had the highest priority and the last one had the least priority.

As per the above figure, the document “Default.htm” had the highest priority and the file “Default.aspx” had the lowest priority. This means whenever the user types a url (like www.someurl.com), then IIS looks for any one of the files that exist in the above order on that Virtual Directory. If it finds any one of the files, it will load that page.

IIS also allows, adds/removes the custom default document per Web site. For example, if we specify a page (say home.htm) as the default document which does not exist in the website, then IIS will look into that website and alert the user as shown below, which explicitly states that each time we type the url, IIS will look in that order.

As per the alert, it is advisable to move the default document at the top level, which will increase the performance in the sense IIS can avoid going further down in the list.

Today, I will show you how to generate SSL certificate request (CSR) with Certreq. Certreq.exe is a command-line utility included on Windows Servers. It allows you to quickly generate a certificate request without having to use Windows's laborious GUI.

Step 1: Creating a config file

Open a text editor and paste the text below in the file:

;--- request.inf ---

[Version]
Signature="$Windows NT$"

[NewRequest]
; Replace Country with the 2-letter ISO code for your country
; Replace State with your state or province, without abbreviation
; Replace City with your city
; Replace Organization with your company
; Replace Organization_Unit with your department, or remove OU=Organizational_Unit entirely
; Replace www.example.com with the hostname you're requesting a certificate for
; For a wildcard SSL certificate, this would be *.example.com
Subject = "CN=www.example.com, OU=Organizational_Unit, O=Organization, L=City, S=State, C=Country"
; Key Exchange - for encryption
KeySpec = 1 
; 2048 bits minimum, 3072 or 4096 are valid too
KeyLength = 2048
; Needed if you need to export the certificate to another server
Exportable = TRUE
; Indicates a server certificate, not a user certificate
MachineKeySet = TRUE
SMIME = False
UserProtected = FALSE
; Generate a new private key
UseExistingKeySet = FALSE
; RSA key
ProviderName = "Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider"

ProviderType = 12
; Standard of CSR's
RequestType = PKCS10
; Digital signatures and encryption
KeyUsage = 0xa0

[EnhancedKeyUsageExtension]
; Server authentication
OID=1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1

;------------------------------

Step 2: Generate a Certificate Request

Generate your CSR with the following command:

C:\>certreq -new request.inf request.csr

Open the .csr file, and copy its contents in Kinamo's CSR application form, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST and END CERTIFICATE REQUEST lines.

Step 3: Install an SSL certificate with Certreq

The .cer file you receive from the Certificate Authority can easily be installed by saving the file on the server you generated the CSR on, for instance as cert.cer, and by executing the following command at the prompt:

C:\>certreq -accept cert.cer

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