IIS: Internet Information Server (IIS) is a Web Server, which is the powerful side of the World Wide Web. Internet Information Server running on Windows NT Server 4.0 creates a powerful mutually beneficial relationship.  It is designed in such a way that it can handle the most demanding Web site traffic.

Benefits of IIS

• A high level of performance for Web servers, both on the Internet and on corporate Intranets

• Easy setup of web sites

• Use of the integrated security services of the Windows NT Server

• Secure authentication of users to a directory

• Choice of interfaces

• Extension of Windows programming model to the Web

• Access to the intrinsic services of NT Server

• Microsoft BackOffice

features of IIS

• HTTP 1.1 Support: HTTP 1.1 is the latest version of this protocol.  New features include improved transfer speed, tighter security, and additional virtual hosting abilities

• Internet Services: IIS provides support for the following Internet services:

• WWW Service

• FTP Service

• SMTP Service

• NNTP service

Other Microsoft Products that integrate with IIS

• Microsoft Proxy Server: It provides the facility to proxy accounts and also acts a s firewall to incoming traffic trying to access IIS.

• Microsoft Commerce Server: Microsoft Site Server is actually a combination of number of products that together provides a complete package of Web site tools.  These tools include Commerce Server and the complete version of Microsoft Usage Analyst.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer (IE) is the Microsoft's Web browser, which is included with Microsoft NT 4.0.

Choosing an appropriate technology for IIS installation

There are three options that you can choose to run IIS on your system.  These are:

• Choosing different options of IIS

1 Internet Information Server

2 Peer web Service

3 Personal web Server

Both IIS on Windows NT workstation and IIS on Windows 95 supports all of the IIS functionality except:

• Index Server

• Certificate Server

• Multiple Web Site hosting

• Open Database Connectivity(ODBC) logging

• Internet protocol (IP) restrictions

• Process isolation

Configuring Operating System Prior to IIS installation

Before you install IIS and its associated components, you need to setup your operating system with the following:

• TCP/IP

• NTFS

• IP Address for Server

Choosing the appropriate hardware requirements for installing IIS

The setting up of IIS 4.0 involves the following steps:

Obtaining the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack: With this option pack, you are provided with the following components:

• Certificate Server

• FrontPage 98 Server Extensions

• Internet Connection Services for RAS

• Microsoft Data Access Components 1.5

• Microsoft Index Server

• Microsoft Management Console

• Microsoft Message Queue

• Microsoft Script Debugger

• Microsoft Site Server Express 2.0

• NT Option Pack Common Files

• Transaction Server

• Visual Interdev RAD Remote Deployment Support

• Windows Scripting Host

Installing and Configuring IIS

1. While Installing Microsoft Internet Information 4.0, the first screen that you can see is a Welcome screen. To display the End User License Agreement screen, click on Next.

2  To accept the agreement, click on Accept and than click on Next.

3  A dialog box with the following options appear:

• Minimum

• Typical

• Custom

Installation options

4  Click on the Internet Information Server option, which is the core component, needed for your server.

5  In order to select the specific subcomponents, select the Show Subcomponents Button.

6  To display the dialog box, showing the default publishing folder, click on Next.  A list of the following services is displayed:

• Web services are installed in the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot folder

• FTP services are installed in the C:\Inetpub\ftproot folder

• Applications are installed in the C:\Programs Files folder

7  To accept the default directory, click on Next.  The Transaction server dialog box appears.  The MTS Install folder field shows where transaction Server will be installed.  By default, this folder is named C:\MTS.

8  To display a dialog box to set remote administration features, click on Next. To display the Index Server destination dialog box, click on Next.  The Index Server dialog box displays the default folder for the index.  This default directory is C:\Inetpub.

9  To display the Mail Server destination dialog box, click on Next.  The Mail Server destination dialog box displays the default folder for the mail root directory

10  To display the News Server dialog box, click on Next. This dialog box displays the default folder for the nntpfile directory.

11  To display the Microsoft Certificate Server dialog box, click on Next. To display The Key Storage Location dialog box, click on Next.  Enter the names you want for the system store Container for your keys.

12  To display the Choose database location dialog box, click on Next.  Notice that a default folder, which stores the certificate information, is displayed.

13  To select the Cryptographic Services Provider and hash algorithm dialog box, click on Next. This is used as a key to identify your public encryption scheme.

14  To display the Certificate Output File Names dialog box, click on Next.  This dialog box displays the signature and key exchange certificate names.

15  To type a comment to identify the certificate later, click on Next.

16  To complete setup, click on Next.  Setup now completes the installation process and install IIS files onto your hard disk. When all the files are installed to your system, click on Finish.

You will be prompted to restart your computer. To do so, click Yes.

Administering  IIS

Microsoft Management Console

Microsoft Management Console is used to organize and perform management task for IIS 4.0.  MMC provides a framework for administering multiple network-management programs.

MMC Components: The console is composed of several distinct components.

Configuring and Saving Consoles: You can customize consoles and window settings by using MMC. Console files can be saved using the .mssc file extension.

Using the Management Console: To create your own console, perform the following steps:

1 Select Start, Run.

2 Type mmc and press Enter.  The MMC will be launched while showing a new console command window.

3 Select Console, Add/RemoveSnap-in.

4 Select Add.

5 Double-click on Internet Information Server in the available Standalone Snap-ins list box.

6 Click on OK.  Your console is now configured to manage the IIS service.

7 Click on console, SaveAs.

8 Select desktop in the Save In directory browser.

9 Type Internet Manage.msc in the file name input box.

10 Click on save.  An Icon for this management console will immediately appear on the desktop.

11 Select Console, Exit.

12 Right-click the Internet Manage.msc icon on the desktop and select Properties.

13 Notice that the size of the file will be less than 10 KB.

To confirm your settings, click on OK.

Adding Snap-ins to the MMC

To add the Microsoft Transaction Server and Index Server snap-ins, perform the following steps:

1 Double-click the Internet Manage.msc icon on your desktop.

2 Collapse the Internet Information Server snap-in by clicking the box next to it.

3 Select Console, Add/Remove Snap-in.

4 Click on Add.

5 Double-click the Index Server Standalone Snap-in.

A menu of currently available snap-ins

6 Click Finish to manage the local computer.

7 Click on Add.

8 Double-click the Microsoft Transaction Server Standalone Snap-in.

9 Click on OK. Notice that the nodes that you have added appear below the console root node.

10 Select Console, Exit to close the MMC.

Click on Yes when asked to see console settings.

IIS Metabase

A registry like structure called a metabase is created specifically to store IIS parameters. The metabase is faster, more flexible, and more expandable than the Windows NT registry. The following is list of the types of property settings stored in the metabase:

• Computer and web Site Properties

• Logging Properties

• FTP-Specific properties

• HTTP-Specific Properties

• Virtual Directory and Directory Properties

• File properties

• Filter Properties

• SSL key properties

To view the Metabase entries directly, perform the following steps:

1 Select Start, Find, Files or folders.

2 Select Local Hard drives in the Look in pick box unless you have installed IIS.

3 Type mdutil.exe in the named input box.

4 Click Find.

5 Double-click on my computer.

6 Double-click on C:\drive (or the drive where your Windows NT system is stored).

7 Double-click the WinNT folder(or the folder where your windows NT system is stored)

8 Double-click the System3 folder.

9 Double-click the Inetsrv folder.

10 Right-click the mdutil.exe and drag it from the result pane to the Inetsrv folder.

11 Right-click the mdutil.exe file and drag it from the result pane to the Inetsrv folder.

12 Select Copy here.

13 Select Start, Programs, Command Prompt.

14 Type CD\WINNT\SYSTEM3\INETSRV9replace WinNT with the name of your NT system directory and switch to the system volume if it’s not in C:\)

15 Type mdutil enum_all>c:\metabase.txt.  This will create a text dump of all the keys in the metabase and will write the text dump to the file specified.

16 Double-click on My Computer.

17 Double-click on the C:\drive.

18 Double-click on the C:\drive.

19 Double-click on the metabse.txt file.

20 View the contents of the text files. Scroll down through the file and notice that each Web site, virtual directory, directory and file has its own metabase settings.

21 Close the text file and all other windows on your desktop.

Using HTML-based administration tools

You have already used Management Console to administer IIS Services, Using  HTML- base administration tool (HTMLA), a user can manage accounts, track event logs, monitor performance, and adjust server properties.

To open the HTMLA, follow these steps:

1 Press the Start button, point to programs-> Microsoft Internet Information Server, and then click the Internet Service Manager (HTML) button. The screen, as shown in the figure below, appears.

The HTMLA initial screen

2 To manage specific objects such as the default Web site, point to the object and click.  Notice that the HTML view is changed to the default web site HTML management page.

The HTMLA Default Web Site management page

Using Windows Scripting Host

IIS 4.0 provides you with an interface for running scripts.  This interface is called Windows Scripting Hosts (WSH). Scripts are lists of commands for the computer to manage any Windows process.  Writing these lists is called programming or scripting.  WSH is the platform on which these scripts run. There are two scripting hosts that you can use to execute your scripts. These are:

• Wscripts.exe that runs scripts in Windows.

• Cscript.exe that runs scripts from the command prompt.

Both these scripting hosts require the name of the script as a parameter.

Creating a Windows Scripting Host File

To create a WSH file for a given script, you need to perform the following steps:

1 Open Windows NT Explorer

2 Right-click on C:\Winnt\Samples\Wsh\shortcut.vbs.

3 On the context menu that appears, click Properties.

4 Click the Script tab.

5 Check the Stop script after specified number of second’s box.

6 To close the script after five seconds, enter 5 in the second’s box.

7 Click on OK.  Notice that a shortcut version of the showvar icon will appear in the Contents of ‘Wsh’ list.  Its file type is Windows Scripting Host Settings File.  At this time, a Wsh file is automatically created with the same name as the original script file.

8 Double click on the showvar shortcut icon.  A message box appears with the message “ This script will list all environment variables defined on this machine.” This message was generated by the showvar script.

9 Click on Ok.  A text box entitled Windows Scripting Host sample appears with a list of the system variables.  This message is also generated by the showva script.

You will notice that after five seconds, the text box closes.  The closing of the text box is controlled by the WSH file.

The IIS server architecture consists of four major components.  These are:

• Inetinfo process/Connectors

• Microsoft Windows NT System Services

• Web Services

• Application Services

Inetinfo Process: The HTTP and the FTP services resides in a process called Internet Information Services Application (Inetinfo).  This process also contains the shared thread pool, cache, logging, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) services.

Metabase The metabase is a structure for storing configuration settings.  It functionality is almost similar to the system registry, but it uses less disk space.

Thread Pool : A thread is a unit of execution.  It is that part of the process that executes.  A thread runs in the address space of the process.  It uses the resources allocated to the process.  A thread pool is a group of threads used within the process for a particular operation.

Isolating Applications: You can isolate server applications.  In this case it will run in a process separate from the Web server process.  This is done to avoid the running of the server in case the application fails

Basic Process With Windows NT Server and IIS, setting up remote administration for customers is easy.  You need to provide each customer with a Windows NT user account and a browser that supports JavaScript and frames.

Cache: HTTP and FTP run from within the same process.  For this reason, they can share cached data.

Logging: It tracks the sites visited by the user.  Thus it helps to track security and

Connectors Connectors appear in the form of extensions in IIS.  A connector is an Internet Server Application Programming Interface dynamic-link library (ISAPI DLL) that acts a communicating medium between IIS and a service.

Windows NT System Services: The lowest layer in the IIS server architecture is the Windows NT systems services layer.  Data enters this layer through TCP/IP and exits through Windows Sockets.

TCP/IP: TCP/IP provides a set of protocols that supports communication across interconnected networks made up of computers with diverse hardware architecture and operating systems.

Windows Sockets: Windows Sockets (Winsock) acts as an interface between programs and the transport protocol and works as a bi-directional channel for incoming and outgoing data.

Web Services: The middle IIS architecture layer is called Web services layer. This layer houses the core functionality of IIS.

Asynchronous Thread Queue: The Asynchronous Thread Queue (ATQ) component maintains a pool of input-output threads for handling input-output operations.

Infocomm.dll

The Infocom.dll component handles the following functions for

IIS:

• File handling cache

• Security

• Authentication (SSL)

• Administration support

• Utilities

• Service controller interface

• Meta cache (run-time cache)

• Instance support (Implements Host Headers for the Web server and multiple domains for NNTP service.)

FTP

• This component handles all FTP requests.

Isadmin

• This component houses the Distribute Component Object Model (DCOM) for the metabase.

WWW

• This component handles all WWW requests.

MTP/NNTP

These components support mail and news services for IIS.  Each is a .dll and can support multiple instances.

ISAPI Extensions

• The Microsoft Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is an alternative to Common Gateway Interface (CGI).  ISAPI provides the benefits of faster loading, better scalability, and efficient use of resources.

ISAPI Filters

• An ISAPI filter is a type of ISAPI application.  You can use this to receive notification of various events during the handling of HTTP requests.

CGI

The CGI component supports the use of the Common Gateway Interface on an IIS server.  CGI is a server-side interface for initiating software services.  It includes a set of interfaces that describes how a Web server communicates with software on the same computer.

Application Services

The top layer of IIS architecture is the Application services layer.  This layer provides some of the extensibility options for IIS.  These options include Active Server Pages (ASP) and Index Server.

Web Application Manager

All information enters and exits the Application service layer through the Web Application Manager (WAM).

ISAPI

ISAPI is an application program interface that resides on a server computer for initiating software services tuned for Microsoft Windows NT operating system.

Active Server Pages

The Active Server Pages (ASP) component provides the functionality for server-side ASP.

Index Server

The Index Server enables you to index and query files on IIS.  It is implemented as a separate ISAPI DLL.

HTTP ODBC

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) component supports the Internet Database Connector (IDC) scripts.

Server Side Include

The server-side includes (SSI) directives component.  It allows IIS to include text, graphics, or application information into an HTML page just before sending the HTML page to a user.

Administration Architecture

Metabase

IIS stores most of its configuration information in a database called the metabase.  Metabase functions similar to the registry.

Active Directory Service Interface

ADSI is a common interface for administering services in Windows NT.  IIS allows an ADSI provider to connect applications to the metabase using the ADSI interface.

Microsoft Management Console

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) allows snap-ins to communicate with IIS metabase.

HTMLA

HTMLA-based administration (HTMLA) communicates with the IIS metabase over the Internet or intranet.  This structure enables administration of the Web Server even if a Web site is down.

Windows Scripting Host

The Windows Scripting Host (WSH) serves as a controller for ActiveX Scripting engines

Configure IIS to support FTP Service

Before starting with IIS 4.0, you need to configure some of the settings relating to FTP.  These settings include:

Setting Bandwidth and User Connections: In order to conserve bandwidth for other clients accessing your Web site, you need to limit the number of connections that can be connected to your site. To set user connections and bandwidth throttling, use the following steps:

1 Start the Internet Service Manager and expand the Internet information Server folder.

2 Expand the server that you want to modify.

3 To display the Properties sheet, click on Properties.

4 Click on the Enable Bandwidth Throttling checkbox.

5 Notice that the default value in the connection field is 1,024. If your resources are limited, then you can also enter a lower value.

This sets the bandwidth throttling for all the services running on your computer.

Setting User Logon Requirements and Authentication Requirements: For allowing clients to access your FTP servers, you need to set up user logon and authentication requirements.  This can be done by allowing anonymous connection.

Modifying Port Settings: Port settings are used by clients to connect to FTP site.  By default, the FTP server is set up with a port setting of 1.

To change the port number follow these steps:

1. Select start, Programs, Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Internet Service Manager.
2. Expand the Internet Information Server folder.
3. Expand the server in which you want to modify the port value.
4. Right-click the default FTP Site entry.
5. To display the Default FTP Properties sheet, click on Properties now.
6. Change the TCP Port value to a new setting.

The FTP Site Properties sheet to change the port setting

When the settings have changed, click on OK.

Setting Directory Listing Style: It is the manner in which your server displays a directory listing.  Windows NT Server uses a listing style similar to DOS, you can change this to display in UNIX format.

To change your server’s directory listing style, perform these steps:

1 From the FTP Site Properties sheet, select the Home Directory tab.

2 Under Directory Listing Style, select UNIX.

Configuring FTP Home Directory:   Once you have change your FTP settings, you need to configure you home directory. To change the home directories, follow these steps:

1 From the FTP Site Properties sheet, select the Home Directory tab.

2 In the, When Connecting to this Resource  radio button box, select one of these areas:

• A directory located on this computer: Select this option to specify a local directory.

• A share locate on another computer: Select this option to specify a directory on another computer on the network.

3 In the Local Path or the Network share field, enter the path to the directory you want to specify as the home directory.  For local directories, use standard synta x, such as C:\directory\subdirectory.  While network paths must follow the Universal Naming Convention (UNC),.

4 To set the home directory access controls, select one of the following options:

• Read: It lets the user reads and download files that you store in the home directory or in virtual directories.  By default, this option is selected.

• Write: It lets the users upload files to the home directory on your FTP server.  This option should be selected only for FTP servers in which users must upload files.  By default, this option is not selected.

• Log Access: Provides a record of visitors to the home directory.  By default, this option is selected.

5 To confirm your settings, click on OK.

Configuring IIS to Support the WWW Service

1 Setting Bandwidth and User Connections: Select Start, Programs, Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, Microsoft Internet Information Server, and Internet Service Manager.

2 Expand the Internet information Server folder.

3 Expand the server that you want to modify.

4 To display the Properties sheet, right-click on Web site and click on Properties.

5 On the Web site tab, click the Limited To option.

6 Enter a value in the Connections field.  The default is 1,000.

7 In the Connection Timeout field, enter a value for the amount of time after which your server should automatically disconnect an idle session.  The default is 900 seconds.

8 To select bandwidth throttling, select the Performance tab, and then click the Enable Bandwidth Throttling option.

9 In the maximum network use field, enter a value for the amount of bandwidth you want IIS to use.

10 When you have finished changing the setting, click on OK.

Setting default pages: When accessing the home pages of many Web sites, you need not have to specify a particular document name, such as index.html.  You can set IIS 4.0 to display a default page when clients access your site without a specified document in the URL.  From this default page, you can direct users to other documents or resources on your site.  It also lets you specify more then one default document and list them in order of preference.  When a client connects to your site, IIS searches for the top-most document and displays it.  If the document is updated or edited and cannot be found, then the next default document is displayed.

To display the default pages, use the following steps:

1. From the Web site Properties sheet, click on the Documents tab.
2. Select the Enable Default Document option.  By default, this option is enable.
3. Click on the Add button to specify a different default document.
4. In the Add Default Document dialog box, specify a new default document.
5. To confirm your settings, click on OK.
6. If you want IIS to insert an HTML file to the end of your Web documents, click on the Enable Document Footer
7. Enter the path and filename for the footer file.
8. To confirm your settings, click on OK.

Setting HTTP 1.1 Host header Names to Host Multiple web Sites: IIS 4.0 provides support for HTTP 1.1 host headers to allow multiple host names to be associated with one IP address.  For this your computer should have multiple names established in the DNS Server providing domain name resolution for your server.

Enabling HTTP Keep-alives: You can enable IIS .0 keep-alive feature to enable clients to maintain open connections.  This way a client does not need to re-establish connections for each request. By enabling keep-alive, you can decrease the amount of time a client waits to connect to another document or application on your site.  Moreover, you also increase the amount of resources devoted to this client.  To enable HTTP keep-alives, perform these steps:

1 From the Web Site Properties sheet, click the Performance tab.

2 Select the HTTP keep-Alives Enabled option and click on OK.

Enable the HTTP keep-alive setting on the Performance tab.

Configuring Resource Access

Creating and Sharing Directories with appropriate permissions: To create and share a new WWW or FTP directory, start the Internet Service Manager. Then select the server on which you want to create the directory.  After you have selected the server, perform the following steps to create a directory:

1. Right-click and select New.  This gives you an option of creating either an FTP or WWW site.    To create a WWW directory, let’s select WWW.
2. Specify the IP address here
3. Enter the Web site description and select Next.
4. Select or verify the IP address to use.
5. The default TCP port value is 80.  This is the default used for all WWW services.
6. If you want to use SSL, enter the appropriate port.  The default value is 443, and click Next.
7. Enter the path for the Home director or specify the path using the Browse button. specify the path for the home directory
8. By default, the check box appears allowing anonymous access to this Web site.  Select Next to specify the directory permissions.
9. Select the access permissions for the directories.

To confirm your settings, click on Finish.

Changing permissions and Access for Directories , to change the directory permissions for the Default Website, perform the following steps:

1. In the Internet Service Manager, select the Default Website.
2. Right-click on Default Web site, and select properties
3. Click the Directory Security tab of the directory’s properties.

Sharing Directories

You can share your directory to allow other users on the network to access directories present in your machine. These users can then access them just as they use the directories on their local hard disk.  The access permissions for a shared directory will apply to all file and subdirectories within the shared directory.  To manage sharing on a directory Follow these steps:

1. Right-click on a directory.
2. Select Properties from the bottom of the pop-up menu.
3. On the property sheet, select the Sharing tab.
4. If the folder is not currently shared, the Not shared option button will be selected.  To share this folder, select the Shared As option, and give it a descriptive name as in the Shared Name field.
5. Select the Permissions button to set the appropriate permission levels.  The default is Full Access for Everyone.

Changing Permissions and Access for Files

You can also control the permissions for specific files in a similar. First, select the file and choose its properties.  A screen as shown in figure below appears.[Grab]. For example, to change the permissions for default.htm, perform the following steps:

1. Select the file default.htm in the Internet Service Manager.
2. Right-click and choose Properties from the bottom of the pop-up menu.
3. On the subsequent dialog box, choose the Security tab, and then click the Permissions button.

Creating and Sharing Virtual Directories

A virtual directory can be defined as a directory that is not contained in the home directory but appears to Web browsers as a part of home directory.

To create a virtual directory, perform the following steps:

1    Start the Internet Service manager from the Programs portion of the Start menu.
2    Open a Web site, right-click and select New.
3    Select Virtual Directory.  This starts the new Virtual directory wizard.
4    Enter an alias to be used for the virtual directory name, and click next
5    Enter the physical path to the virtual directory as shown in figure below and click Next.
6    Select the access permissions for the virtual directory.  The options available are:

• Allow Read Access
• Allow Script Access
• Allow Execute Access
• Allow Directory Browsing
• Creating and Sharing Virtual Servers
• Virtual Servers lets you expand your site beyond the limitations of a single site per server. You can combine a number of different sites on a single server through the implementation of virtual servers.

There are two main ways to create virtual servers with IIS 4.0.  These are:

1. Creating multiple directories on the same machine and pointing separate host headers to each of them.
2. Binding two IP addresses to the same network car on the computer and then using the network card to route the traffic to the appropriate Web site.
3. Creating a Virtual Server

To create a virtual server, you must have created a directory to publish.  Then perform the following steps:

1    Start Internet Service Manager
2    From the Action menu, select New, and then Web Site
3    Enter an IP address to use for the site and the TCP port, as shown in the figure[Grab].  Chick on Next now.
4    Enter the path for the home directory and whether anonymous access is allowed.  Click on Next no.
5    Configure the appropriate rights, and click on Finish now.

Configuring SMTP Service

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service provided with IIS 4.0 gives you the ability to send mail to others on your network as well as on the Internet.  You can use it to create mail messages that are forwarded to e-mail recipients on the Web.
When you right-click on the SMTP node in the management console, you get to see the mail configuration panels.  When you select the Properties tab, you will see the following:

• SMTP Site
• Operators
• Messages
• Delivery
• Directory Security
• Configure NNTP Service

Network News Transport protocol (NNTP) is a client/server public bulletin board service. Users can post news messages to news group, create a new newsgroup.

1. To create a newsgroup, perform the following steps:
2. Using the Internet Service Manager, right-click Default NNTP site.
3. Click on properties, and then select the Groups tab.
4. Click create new newsgroup.
5. In the Newsgroup box, type the name of the newsgroup you want to create.
6. In the description box, type a brief description of the newsgroup function.
7. Click Ok, and then OK again to close the Default NNTP Site Properties.

Configuring Certificate Server

Certificates provide digital authentication to software security systems.  You can generate, create, and use keys for digital authentication by using Microsoft Certificate Server.

Connecting to Servers and Viewing Keys

To manager the keys of several servers, you need to use the Key manager.

Generating keys

You can generate keys from the Create New Key menu option of the Key menu option of the Key menu. .  The identity of the key is the key name and the password.

Configuring Index Server

Microsoft Index Server indexes the contents and properties of the documents on an Internet or Intranet web site, which is hosted by Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0.

Indexing

The collection of all the documents stored in an IIS site for indexing is called a corpus.  The corpus is stored in one or more storage location on the local machine or another connected file server that can be either a virtual server or virtual directory.

There are three steps in the indexing process:

• Filtering: Content filtering is required because documents are store in some private format, which is not known to the system.
• Word breaking: Index server provides language specific word breakers that breaks a stream of characters into valid words.
• Normalization: The normalizer cleans up the words emitted by the word breaker, handling things like capitalization, punctuation and noise word removal.
• The Querying Process
• You can use Query forms to search you Web site for documents that meet the criteria they specify.
• Query Form Elements
• Sample Query Form: A sample query form is included with the Index Server. The query form consists of several elements:
• HTML File: This file displays a Web page where a user enters the query parameters.  It also displays the result set returned by Index Server.
• Internet data Query (IDQ) file: The IDQ file is the intermediate form of the use’s search request that Index Server will run to search the index.
• HTML Extension File (HTX): The HTX file is an HTML file containing query results.  This data is then added to an HTNL page and sent to the Web browser to be displayed

 

 

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