An Overview of IIS 7.0

I saw a preview of IIS 7.0 today. IIS 7.0 has many new features that will send IT Professionals and Developers into a "tailspin." Unfortunately, the first public beta of IIS 7.0 won't be until Longhorn Beta 2. IIS 6.0 will be part of Longhorn Beta 1.

Configuration and Admin Tool

The Configuration and Admin Tool is not similar to the existing IIS 4, 5, or 6 admin tools. Rather, it is in a control-panel format. IIS 7 can be managed completely through an admin website that runs on port 80. The tool can also be exposed to additional users in a limited fashion by the admin setting up rules. So, web hosters can now offer a managed solution with doing minimal work.

Core Server

The server now allows features and functionality to work as a "plug-in-play" format. What I mean is that all of the functionality for IIS 7.0 is setup in what they now call modules. So, third-party companies can now write add-in modules for the system. Also, the ASP.NET configuration tool is now integrated in IIS.

Diagnostics

Administrators can now diagnose issues happening with their IIS box by establishing traces and performance monitoring within the Admin tool. They can even see if multiple processes or a single process is tying up the server. Administrators can define traces to be as granular as a particular page, type of document, and error type.

Security

The security options now include supporting non-Windows authenticated models. Since the server now uses a component-based model, there is now a reduced risk for attacks.

Additional IIS 7 features will be announced at a later date and time.