What’s new in R2?

On a more granular level, the IIS-specific cmdlets included with Windows Server 2008 R2 ease the administrative burden for many low-level day-to-day tasks. For example, these cmdlets allow administrators to add and change configuration properties of Web sites and Web-based applications as well as virtual directories and application pools. Users more familiar with Windows PowerShell will be able to execute advanced configuration tasks and even integrate existing Windows PowerShell scripts with other Windows PowerShell providers across different Windows Server 2008 R2 feature areas. A few common scenarios for PowerShell within IIS 7.5 management might include:

• Adding/modifying/deleting sites and applications

• Migrating site settings

• Configuring SSL and other security settings

• Restricting access by IP address

• Backing up IIS configuration and content

Enhancements to IIS Manager

New features have been added to IIS Manager for the 7.5 release. These include managing Web server and Web application settings by using Configuration Editor.

• More easily accessing previously hidden settings such as those for FastCGI and ASP.NET applications

• Adding and editing request filtering rules through a graphical user interface

Configuration Editor

• Configuration Editor allows you to manage any configuration section available in the configuration system. Configuration Editor exposes several configuration settings that are not exposed elsewhere in IIS Manager.

IIS Manager UI Extensions

• Utilizing the extensible and modular architecture introduced with IIS 7.0, the new IIS 7.5 integrates and enhances existing extensions and allows for further enhancements and customizations in the future. The FastCGI module, for example, allows management of FastCGI settings while the ASP.NET module allows management of authorization and custom error settings.

Request Filtering

• The Request Filter module in Windows Server 2008 R2 will include the filtering features previously found in URLScan 3.1. By blocking specific HTTP requests, the Request Filter module helps to prevent potentially harmful requests from being processed by Web applications on the server. The Request Filtering user interface provides a graphical user interface for configuring the Request Filtering module.

Managed Service Accounts

• Windows Server 2008 R2 allows domain-based service accounts to have passwords that are managed by Active Directory. These new type of accounts reduce the recurrent administrative task of having to update passwords on processes running with these accounts. IIS 7.5 supports the use of managed service accounts for application pool identities.

Hostable Web Core

• Developers are able to service HTTP requests directly in their applications by using the hostable Web core feature. Available through a set of APIs, this feature lets the core IIS Web engine be consumed or hosted by other applications, allowing those apps to service HTTP requests directly. The hostable Web core feature is useful for enabling basic Web server capabilities for custom applications or for debugging applications.