Conrad Agramont's WebLog : IIS

New IIS 7 article, "Provisioning IIS 7.0 for Secure Hosting "

Conrad — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:23:00 GMT

There is a new web-whitepaper on how to provide a secure hosting envirionment using IIS 7.0, written by "Vikas Malhotra ". There's some very interesting information there. Especially the provisioning portion. Now that I've vested so much time on providing a "better" .NET API for IIS 6.0 tasks (Provware: http://agramont.net/r.ashx?3), I'm wondering if I should just jump in on IIS 7 and provide some tools, web UI, and get a head start there or keep banging out stuff for IIS 6 (comments are very welcome).

Anyhow, here is a link to the article: http://www.iis.net/1143/SinglePageArticle.ashx

Overall the article is a nice initial overview, but there is still much work to be done on best practices. With IIS 7, it's no longer just about ASP.NET. What I mean by that is today with Windows Server 2000/2003, it's all about getting access to ASP.NET. Now with IIS7, there is more of a platform for web developers to offer even cooler features that integrate with the web server itself. So how does the hoster offer those "override" services to customer/developers? What components shouldn't the hoster allow developers to remove, override, or utilize? What performance issues will that have and will it crash other customers if there is an issue?

In looking at some of the latest builds from IIS 7, there are some great answers there (I need time to formulate my responses to my own questions----I know, I suck), but these still need to be addressed. Not only that, they'll need to be automated in a Web UI, Command Line, Web Service, or whatever mechanism an Admin or automation system needs to kick that off.

I hope to have some more IIS 7 content (including videos) coming soon (If MS lets me).

Windows Based Hosting 4.0 Released (Components & Documentation)

Conrad — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:17:00 GMT

As of tonight (yes I'm up late again), the documentation for WbH 4.0 and "for Apps" is now available.

The Components: Windows Based Hosting 4.0 Released (Part 1)
The Documentation: Windows Based Hosting 4.0 Released (Part 2)

Yes I'm pimping my site again, but I at least try to keep it up to date with various Microsoft Solution information and my side projects.

Provware Framework…the first drop

Conrad — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 01:25:00 GMT

Last night, I posted the first build of the Provware Framework on my site (http://agramont.net/files/14/default.aspx). It’s been a project that I’ve been working for the past month during my “free time”.

What’s the Provware Framework?
The Provware Framework is an API set built to make the interactions with IIS more intuitive and developer friendly. For instance, the typical way that developers interact with IIS is via the DirectoryServices API of the .NET Framework. This requires a fair amount of knowledge of how to program via ADSI and the IIS Metabase. Since many people are just looking for a way to create sites, virtual directories, and application pools, this can be very difficult. Thus the Provware Framework is born.

The Provware Framework provides a simple way to manage IIS components via .NET in a more “strongly typed” fashion.

Here are some links to some blog posts on the Provware Blog that should get you going:

Provware Blog: http://agramont.net/blogs/provware/default.aspx
Provware Forums: http://agramont.net/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=11
Provware Downloads: http://agramont.net/files/14/default.aspx
Getting Started: http://agramont.net/blogs/provware/archive/2006/08/01/Provware_3A00_-Getting-Started-_2800_Build-001_2900_.aspx
HowTo: View ApplicationPool Identity for an IIS Website: http://agramont.net/blogs/provware/archive/2006/07/31/How-To_3A00_-View-Application-Pool-Identity-for-an-IIS-Website.aspx
HowTo: Create a new Website: http://agramont.net/blogs/provware/archive/2006/07/31/How-To_3A00_-Create-a-new-Website.aspx

Moving to Agramont.net (Hosting, ASP.NET IIS, Hosted Exchange, Microsoft Provisioning System, and Community Server)

Conrad — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:08:00 GMT

Now that I have my site working pretty well, I'm now going to do all of my blog posts over there (http://agramont.net/). I tried the cross-posting thing using the built-in features of Community Server (CS2 with ASP.NET 2), but it felt weird having the same content on two sites. From time to time, I'll post on this site a summary of the new content on my new site.

For now, I'm focusing the blog post on Hosting, ASP.NET, IIS, Hosted Exchange, Microsoft Provisioning System, and, Community Server..

New Blog URL: http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/default.aspx

RSS Feed: http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/rss.aspx

Summary of New Content:

Launched Agramont.net

Conrad — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 02:55:00 GMT

Today is the first day that Agramont.net (http://agramont.net) is available on the Internet! I've had the domain for quite some time, but never really had the time to get it together. With thanks to the Community Server team (for their product), I now have the site up and running.

About the site:

ASP.NET 2.0
Community Server 2.0 for ASP.NET 2.0 (Express for now)
Used website template (only pieces) purchased on TemplateMonster.com
Ads are driven by Google Adsense
Added the site to Google Via Google Sitemaps
Traffic reporting is done via Google Analytics
Shared hosting site via ASPnix (IIS6/SQL Server 2005 64-bit)

I plan to produce a fair amount of content for this site, but mostly through my blog. My blog is still currently posted on weblogs.asp.net, but I plan to use this site to most the majority of my blogs and do crossposting over to the weblogs.asp.net site.

From time to time, I write a bunch of protoype applications and tools and they just sit on my home development machine wasting away. So I plan to share a bunch of that on this site.

I have a few ideas on some other websites, so this is just a start at running my own public websites and content.

With that said, I'm still working with Service Provider/Hosters customers around the globe while working for Planet Technologies (http://www.go-planet.com/). With so much coming down the road from Microsoft (IIS 7, Exchange 12, Office Servers), I have a lot to learn and share with all of you.

Latest MS Trend: Product Team Websites

Conrad — Wed, 24 May 2006 06:29:00 GMT

It appears that the “one off” website started by the ASP.NET team in Microsoft (http://www.asp.net/) is catching on. Recenlty, the IIS team has released a new site solely focused on just that product. It includes links to information around the web and some videos. Very interesting.

Here is a list of some of these sites:

ASP.NET – http://www.asp.net (blogs: http://weblogs.asp.net/, Atlas: http://atlas.asp.net/)
IIS – http://www.iis.net/
Exchange (blog) - http://msexchangeteam.com/

Anyone else know of some other of these Microsoft "One Off's". And by one off, I don't mean a site hung off of a "traditional MS Property" (e.g. MSDN)

I should also mention the CodePlex as well (http://www.codeplex.com/) which is a rebirth of GotDotNet. Another Microsoft site that's ran separately.

HMC 3.5 Boot Camp & MPS Developer Training

Conrad — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:58:00 GMT

As of today, we (Planet Technologies) are now offering an HMC 3.5 Bootcamp and MPS Developer Training at our training facility in Maryland. We have all of the labs (built on Virtual Server) and equipment ready to go. All you need to do is register and come get your brain jammed with Hosted Exchange, MPS, Active Directory, and lots more. The training class is less of a PowerPoint and Step-by-Step collection of labs, but is very interactive with whiteboard discussions, scenario based lab time, and learnings from real world deploymets! Did I mention the quality Foosball Table?

The first set of these hosting related courses will be taught by yours truly (uh, that’s Conrad Agramont for those of you who didn’t know me)!

For more details, please visit our training page at: http://www.go-planet.com/training/

Be sure to sign up today as we only have a few seats left for our first course on June 13th!

Released to Web: Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5

Conrad — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:17:00 GMT

The Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 has now been released to the web!

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessaging.mspx

Now that it’s released, I’ll upgrade my lab and report back on what I find.

Without going into great detail, here is a quick list of some of the improvments from HMC 3.0:

Support for Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (including the new Mobility features provided with the SP2 update)
Integraiton with "Microsoft Identity Integration Server" (MIIS) to enable "Single Password" support between a corporate customer and their hosted services.
Migration Tools that enable migrating a customer from their current Exchange platform to easily migrate their data to their hosted service.
Improvements to the MPS Deployment Tool.

Here is a link to an MS site that defines what's new in the solution: http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessagingnew.mspx

Bye, Bye FrontPage...Hello Visual Web Developer 2005 Express!

Conrad — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:56:00 GMT

Recently, Microsoft shipped "Microsoft Visual Studio Express Editions" (VWD) and have made them freely available for one year. You can download it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/download/

This is extremely interesting for Service Providers offering web hosting on the Microsoft Platform. For years, Microsoft has leveraged the FrontPage Server Extensions to allow end users using FrontPage or Visual Studio.NET to upload their content to a Windows based service (i.e. IIS). From the end user side, this was cool setup as they just needed to point their client to their website's URL, and off the content. On the other side, Service Providers had to fight with all of the security and deployment issues that FrontPage brought (and hasn't been fixed over the past 4+ years). Both Visual Studio.NET 2005 (all of the versions) and Visual Web Developer 2005 utilize FTP as the default content publishing mechanism which, again, is a significant (and great) change. This doesn't remove the current requirement for Service Providers to continue to provide FrontPage Server Extensions as those legacy clients still requirement.

Visual Web Developer 2005 Express is a great alternative to FrontPage, although it doesn't have the "Web Components" (aka bots) that come with FrontPage. But it does provide a method of designing your web page and (not included in FrontPage) the ability to program the site in ASP.NET and SQL Server (either the full version of SQL Server 2000/2005 or the SQL Server Express Edition). Microsoft also provides a collection of "Starter Kits" that makes it quite easy to build a DYNAMIC (this is important) site based on ASP.NET today. And for Free (except for the Service Provider fees)!

Now with Visual Studio.NET 2005 and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, Service Providers should start offering a Service Plan focused on those customers and deploy them on a separate collection of servers with the .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Based on that new service, customers should use FTP as their primary method of content management. This in the short and long term should reduce the cost in managing a Windows platform for web hosting and should also reduce the cost for the service for customer. This enables the entire (Windows Web Hosting) market to better manage their costs and adding additional value.

Learn more about Visual Web Developer 2005 Express here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/

I plan on writing up a few posts on using VWD with a given Service Provider (anyone willing to donate a site and some space for me? Email conrada@go-planet.com) soon.

eQuest Job Posting: Software Development Engineer

Conrad — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:38:00 GMT

I guess I'll join the trend of puting job postings on a blog. We're growing our development team at eQuest and we're looking for that special person that loves to develop web applications, server side components, and a touch lots of different Microsoft products and technologies. If you're expereienced in MPS architecture, engineering, and/or development and want to work with a team of MPS experts, than this is youre future home!

If you're interested, please shoot me an email with your resume.

Conrad Agramont, Senior Architect, conrada@eqinc.com

Job Title: Software Development Engineer

SUMMARY:
eQuest, a division of Planet Technologies Inc., is looking for a Software Development Engineer that is passionate about developing challenging applications and a desire to work with a variety Microsoft based products and technologies. eQuest works with Service Providers and Telecommunications companies around the world to solve their business requires through the use of Microsoft products and technologies and custom integration with exciting software solutions.

An ideal candidate will be heavily experienced in provisioning and automating Microsoft products and technologies (Active Directory, Exchange, Internet Information Services, and SQL Server). Knowledge of Microsoft Solutions (Hosted Exchange & Windows based Hosting) and the Microsoft Provisioning System is a plus.

This position will also contribute to future product development for the eQuest Automation Framework (EAF). EAF is an ASP.NET-based user interface and a collection of class libraries (built on Visual Studio.NET 2003 and C#) which provides a web based user interface to manage customers, users, and services in a Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Web Hosting environment.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Develop component level specifications
2. Perform peer based reviews for code efficiency and security.
3. Participate in project related team meetings and reviews
4. Work with Project Managers, Developers, and Testers to ensure proper scheduling, integration, and validation of your coding deliverables.
5. Work directly with customers on feature design and requirements.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

Understanding and experience in Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) development process
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Active Directory, Domain Name Service, & Internet Information
Services)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Provisioning System
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (2005 is a plus)
Microsoft Visual Studio.NET & C#
Scripting: VBScript, JavaScript, Windows Scripting Host
Web Development: ASP.NET, HTML, JavaScript
XML (Schemas,

Microsoft Webcasts

Conrad — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:07:00 GMT

This is a collection of Microsoft Webcasts in various areas. This is not a complete list, but a good start.

Engineering:

Active Directory: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/adaug.mspx
Administrative Scripting: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/donjonesscripting.mspx
IIS: http://www.iiswebcastseries.com
Exchange Server 2003:

Management: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.mspx
Security: http://www.microsoft.com/events/security/default.mspx
SQL Server 2003: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/community/webcasts.asp
SQL Server 2005: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetsqlserver2005.mspx
Windows Migration: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetadmigration.mspx

Developer Related:

ASP.NET - http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnaspnetoct.mspx
ASP.NET 2.0: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnwebdev.mspx
MSDN TV: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/default.aspx
MSDN Webcasts: http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/

Other:

Hosting Solutions: http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/programs/windowswebhostingwebcasts.mspx
Event Series Webcasts (Lots of stuff): http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/default.mspx
TechNet 2005 (Not all there yet, but scheduled): http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched2005.mspx
Microsoft Support Webcasts: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;RID;webcst&style=type2&sd=gn

Give me some Microsoft Hosting Topics

Conrad — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 06:34:00 GMT

So it's been just over a year now that I've actively been blogging and doing lots around communities and forums. For the most part, I focus on topics related to providing Hosted Services with the Microsoft Platform. This includes things like Hosted Exchange, Windows base Hosting (aka Windows Web Hosting), and the Microsoft Provisioning System.

In the future, I'm looking to expand the the focus of my blog entries. But for now, I'm interested in seeing who out there is reading my blog and what topics they'd like me to cover. Not so much on a "How do you do this" type of issue as there are forums for that kind of thing (if can't find a forum for your question, then go ahead and ask and I'll see what we can do). I'm looking more for, "How does xyz work?" or "What do think about abc?"

If there is not interest, fine. But I have to at least put the question out there and see if there IS something someone is interested in me writing about.

Either way, I'll keep on posting!

Microsoft Log Parser 2.2

Conrad — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 15:17:00 GMT

As soon as I make a post on Log Parser 2.1, Microsoft then releases Log Parser 2.2!

Here are some interesting things I've found in this thus far (I'm sure I'll find more later):

No "Native" .NET Support or Wrapper.
There is a C# Sample, but there is only one and it doesn't provide lots of detail on how to do other things with the Log Parser via .NET.
There are a lot of new Input types including (XML, Actie Directory, Registry, Netmon, and more)
Command-Line Utility provides the ability to dynamically create a pie chart based on results (it's a GIF file)

Here is a link to download Log Parser 2.2

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=890cd06b-abf8-4c25-91b2-f8d975cf8c07&displaylang=en

Did you know?

Conrad — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:30:00 GMT

That you can't fully manage an IIS 6 server via Windows XP using the Internet Information Services Manager (the MMC to manage IIS) that ships with Windows XP?

You can resolve that issue by installing the IIS 6.0 Manager for Windows XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=F9C1FB79-C903-4842-9F6C-9DB93643FDB7&displaylang=en

This is due to an issue with the version of the IIS Namespace for ADSI installed on the Windows XP machine and the updated version of that API that's in Windows 2003 for IIS. I think it's actually a WMI thing...I can't remember, but either way if you download and install the tool you should be all set.

IIS Resource Kit

Conrad — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:21:00 GMT

This has been out for a while, but worth noting.

IIS 6.0 Resource Kit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80a1b6e6-829e-49b7-8c02-333d9c148e69&DisplayLang=en

This is mainly the documentation portion of the Resource Kit. It's got LOTS of great information about managing and securing your IIS Servers. It's a lot to go through, so mostly it's a reference guide or something to poke around in as you get curious on certian areas.

IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56fc92ee-a71a-4c73-b628-ade629c89499&DisplayLang=en

This includes about 14 handy tools for IIS 6, but the ones that I think are the best are:

Log Parser
Metabase Explorer
RemapURL
IIS 6.0 Migration Tool 1.0 (Version 1.1 is now available via a seperate download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2aefc3e4-ce97-4f25-ace6-127f933a6cd2&displaylang=en)