IIS servers

Hello,
Our organization is constantly faced with an ever growing number of web
based applications that require full installations on our IIS server. What
we have done is install each application on our IIS server. Each app
usually creates its own web underneath the default web site. And with all
these applications comes updates, patches, and upgrades. All of which
usually mean running setup.exe on the IIS box and letting the installer do
its thing.

Not being a seasoned IIS veteran, I'm wondering if we should change course.
I was thinking about moving some of these apps to inexpensive 1U servers, so
that each app gets its own server. What's the recommended practice, and
what are some things I should be thinking about?

With each change, and each new app, I get more worried that one of these
days an app is going to hose the whole server, or maybe break the
functionality of another app. Some config changes require messing with DCOM
settings, etc. It just gets me uneasy.

Let me know if you have any thoughts for a novice IIS admin.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Paul
Fri Jan 30 09:41:28 CST 2004

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:32:15 -0500, "Jonathan Preston"
<prestonj@somewhere.edu> wrote:

>Hello,
>Our organization is constantly faced with an ever growing number of web
>based applications that require full installations on our IIS server. What
>we have done is install each application on our IIS server. Each app
>usually creates its own web underneath the default web site. And with all
>these applications comes updates, patches, and upgrades. All of which
>usually mean running setup.exe on the IIS box and letting the installer do
>its thing.
>
>Not being a seasoned IIS veteran, I'm wondering if we should change course.
>I was thinking about moving some of these apps to inexpensive 1U servers, so
>that each app gets its own server. What's the recommended practice, and
>what are some things I should be thinking about?
>
>With each change, and each new app, I get more worried that one of these
>days an app is going to hose the whole server, or maybe break the
>functionality of another app. Some config changes require messing with DCOM
>settings, etc. It just gets me uneasy.
>
>Let me know if you have any thoughts for a novice IIS admin.
>
>Thanks,
>Jonathan

Jonathon,

There's no easy answer to this and it will mostly be determined by
your available budget in the end.

In terms of application stability, having each app on its own box is
probably the absolute best solution. However, in doing this you will
be creating extra work for yourself as each separate instance of IIS
will need to be maintained, patched etc separately.

Another solution would be to run each application in its own memory
space on your IIS server. This will prevent the applications from
bringing down the whole IIS process but it comes at a price in terms
of performance and scalability.

If you can afford it I'd go with the option of having each app on its
own 1U box, especially if the apps belong to different customers or
departments, etc. That way, if there are ever problems following an
upgrade you can rule out the other apps as being the cause of the
problem. And of course a faulty app will only ever bring itself down.




Regards,

Paul Lynch
MCSE

Kole
Fri Jan 30 09:59:57 CST 2004

Paul,
I have the exact smae problem. One app is bringing down
IIS completely. How do I limit the allocation of memory
for that application?

Kole

>-----Original Message-----
>On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 09:32:15 -0500, "Jonathan Preston"
><prestonj@somewhere.edu> wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>Our organization is constantly faced with an ever
growing number of web
>>based applications that require full installations on
our IIS server. What
>>we have done is install each application on our IIS
server. Each app
>>usually creates its own web underneath the default web
site. And with all
>>these applications comes updates, patches, and
upgrades. All of which
>>usually mean running setup.exe on the IIS box and
letting the installer do
>>its thing.
>>
>>Not being a seasoned IIS veteran, I'm wondering if we
should change course.
>>I was thinking about moving some of these apps to
inexpensive 1U servers, so
>>that each app gets its own server. What's the
recommended practice, and
>>what are some things I should be thinking about?
>>
>>With each change, and each new app, I get more worried
that one of these
>>days an app is going to hose the whole server, or maybe
break the
>>functionality of another app. Some config changes
require messing with DCOM
>>settings, etc. It just gets me uneasy.
>>
>>Let me know if you have any thoughts for a novice IIS
admin.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Jonathan
>
>Jonathon,
>
>There's no easy answer to this and it will mostly be
determined by
>your available budget in the end.
>
>In terms of application stability, having each app on
its own box is
>probably the absolute best solution. However, in doing
this you will
>be creating extra work for yourself as each separate
instance of IIS
>will need to be maintained, patched etc separately.
>
>Another solution would be to run each application in its
own memory
>space on your IIS server. This will prevent the
applications from
>bringing down the whole IIS process but it comes at a
price in terms
>of performance and scalability.
>
>If you can afford it I'd go with the option of having
each app on its
>own 1U box, especially if the apps belong to different
customers or
>departments, etc. That way, if there are ever problems
following an
>upgrade you can rule out the other apps as being the
cause of the
>problem. And of course a faulty app will only ever bring
itself down.
>
>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Paul Lynch
>MCSE
>.
>

Paul
Fri Jan 30 10:41:16 CST 2004

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 07:59:57 -0800, "Kole"
<anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Paul,
>I have the exact smae problem. One app is bringing down
>IIS completely. How do I limit the allocation of memory
>for that application?
>
>Kole

Kole,

Run each web app in its own memory space.

Read these KB articles :

HOW TO: Isolate Web Applications into Their Own Process
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326086

How to Isolate a DLL into a Separate Process By Using Component
Services
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281335


Regards,

Paul Lynch
MCSE

webmaster
Fri Jan 30 13:01:05 CST 2004



----- Jonathan Preston wrote: ----

Each app usually creates its own web underneath the default web site. And with al
these applications comes updates, patches, and upgrades.

I suggest to create for each application an own virtual server (not virtual directory) and to run each website in an own isolated IIS Process

And of course for the developement and testing area separat virtual websites on a own physical server

Hope this helps
Thomas Bruehlman
http://www.webmeister.ch - intranets quick and eas

Carroll
Fri Jan 30 18:37:20 CST 2004

It's always a good idea to have more than one Hard Drive. Having two (2)
hard drives that are partitioned is even better:

You can:
Move your "Page File" off of your system drive and onto the second drive
that you have partitioned and give the "Page File" its own little drive say
3 to 5 gigs.

Have all of your web sites on the second hard drive on a different
partitioned than your "Page file". Point all of your "MMC Websites" to the
second hard drive where you have your sites located. Don't forget to set
your default home page... index.htm or index.asp.

With the above set up you can run an IIS server with 512 megs of ram or more
very easily. You should never install your websites to the default INetPub
folder at the root of "C:\Inetpub" this is a poor idea because it already
has the O/S using it full time. Also one other thing is you may want to
locate all of your web logs off of your "C:\WINNT\system32\LogFiles\" to
another partition of the second hard drive, much easier to take care of and
plus again it moves that extra work off of your system drive. This will
spread the load of your server out and allow your system to run much more
efficiently.


--


Thank you for your time and have a great day,

Carroll P. MacDonald