In this tutorial, I will tell you about Manage IIS with Appcmd. What is Appcmd? The appcmd.exe is a single command, used to manage IIS 7 and above. It is used to manage the Server without using a graphical administration tool. The appcmd is located in C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv (%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\) directory. By default, it will not add into environment variable. 

Key Features 

• Creating and configuring the sites.
• To list the running worker process.
• Backup and restoring the site configuration.
• Retrieve the information about the Application pools.

Object Types

• List
• Add
• Delete
• Set
• Hide

Syntax

appcmd <objecttypes> <parameters>   

set path=%path%;%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv; //used to set the environment variable   

To list all the sites, use the command, given below:

appcmd list sites     

To get the details of a specific site binding and status (stopped/start), use the command, given below:

appcmd list site "Default web site"  

To list all the sites, which had been stopped, use the command, given below:

appcmd list sites /state:Stopped   

To add a new site, use the command, given below:

appcmd add site /name:"added using appcmd" /bindings:"http/*:81:localhost" /physicalPath:"D:\test"

To add an https binding to the site, use the command, given below:

appcmd set site /site.name:"added using appcmd" /+bindings.[protocol='https',bindingInformation='127.0.0.1:444:localhost']  

To list all the applications, use the command, given below:

Appcmd list app  

To change an application pool, use the command, given below:

appcmd set app "added using appcmd/app1" /applicationPool:appcmdpool  

To view the application pool details including the username and password of the app account, use the command, given below:

appcmd list apppool "MyAppPool" /text:*  

Backup

appcmd add backup   

appcmd add backup "locahostbkup"  

appcmd list backup   

appcmd delete backup "backup name"  

Restore

appcmd restore backup "locahostbkup "  

appcmd restored configuration from backup "locahostbkup"  

To view the list of the worker process, which will help us to attach the debugger in Visual Studio, use the command, given below:

appcmd list wps  

To view the list of the physical path, use the command, given below:

appcmd list vdirs /text:physicalPath   

To start and stop the sites, use the command, given below:

appcmd start site "Default web site"  

appcmd stop site "Default web site"

HostForLIFE.eu IIS 7.5 Hosting
HostForLIFE.eu is European Windows Hosting Provider which focuses on Windows Platform only. We deliver on-demand hosting solutions including Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for companies of all sizes. We have customers from around the globe, spread across every continent. We serve the hosting needs of the business and professional, government and nonprofit, entertainment and personal use market segments.

In this article, I will explain about how to deploy nopcommerce in IIS. Those who don't know NopCommerce is open source free Online stores application(just like flipcart,ebay). It is built on ASP.NET MVC. There are many features in NopCommerce. NopCommerce also support wide range of plug-ins. You can create your own plug-ins also. You can found more details about nopcommerce at http://www.nopcommerce.com/

Deployment methods

You can Deploy NopCommerce in two way

• Tools provided by NopCommerce(*.bat)
• Using Visual studio.

First method is very easy to implement. Second method need some extra work.

It is always better idea to deploy production code in local IIS host before deploying it in live server. If your developing asp.net application in visual studio you will use IISExpress to run the application. Most of the time IISExpress may not show those error which will be shown by IIS. For example when i run the nopCommerce in visual studio it worked properly but when i deployed it in Local IIS i fond a unknown error "Could not load type 'System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule......."

Deploying using NopCommerce tools

• Assuming you already download NopCommerce with Source(At the time of writing this post nopCommerce_2.80_Source.rar is the latest version). You can download NopCommerce with source at http://www.nopcommerce.com/downloads.aspx
• Extract nopCommerce_2.80_Source.rar at your desired location. I am using F:\DotNetProjects.
• The extracted folder contains below items.
  
  

• In that folder Prepare.bat, Deploy.bat are the deployment tool given by NopCommerce.
• First Run prepate.bat it will display bunch of text in command prompt and finally Build success message.
  

• Now Run Deploy.bat again it will show you bunch of text in command prompt and finally Build success message. If you observe a new folder called Deployable is created automatically. This is our production code we need to deploy in Live Server.
• Before we deploy it in live server we will deploy it in local IIS. Now Just go to you iis manager.
• Expand the items in your left sidebar. Right click on Default Web Site and select Add Application form the menu.
• Enter details. Physical path field must be point to your Deployable folder.
• Now open your broser and enter http://localhost/nop.
  
• If there is no error it will redirect you to http://localhost/nop/install folder where you need to enter details like admin email,password, db connection details and click install.
• If everything is ok NopCommerse Will install successfully.
  
  Error1:Could not load type 'System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule' ... Problem Fix
  At step 10 in above process you may get this error.
  Could not load type 'System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule' from assembly 'System.ServiceModel, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
  

• If you got this error you can resolve it by using simple tool "aspnet_regiis.exe".
  Just go to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 (path may different for 32 bit pc)in your command prompt. Run the the tool like this. "aspnet_regiis.exe -iru" this will execute some command and the problem should fixed.

ERROR2:Setup failed: An error occurred while creating the database: CREATE DATABASE permission denied in database 'master'. error. fix
If you got this error there are different alternative you can fix this error. But I will explain most simple one only.

• Run NopCommerce.sln under nopCommerce extracted folder(Refer step 2).
• Run the NopCommerce Application (ctrl+f5). 3)It will prompt you to enter db details(refer step 11). Enter details as shown in step 11 and click install.
• This time you wont face any problem (as i told earlier at beginning).
• No go to F:\DotNetProjects\nopCommerce_2.80_Source\Presentation\Nop.Web\App_Data (may different in your pc) and copy InstalledPlugins.txt,Settings.txt to F:\DotNetProjects\nopCommerce_2.80_Source\Deployable\nop_2.80\App_Data(this is our Deployable folder)
• Now Go to http://localhost/nop.
  
  If it asked for db details enter exact details you entered before.
• Voila! you successfully installed NopCommerce.

Deploying nopCommerce using Visual Studio

• Go back to your to Visual studio where you open nopCommerce solution and build the solution.
• Right click on Nop.Web click publish.
• This will prompt you through publish web wizard  Enter details like Publish Method:File System,Physical path
• Now right click on Nop.Admin and publish with sub-directory as /Admin under same directory you selected in previous step.
• copy all files you found under /admin/bin to /bin.
• Now copy copy InstalledPlugins.txt,Settings.txt text to add_data folder(Just follow steps i explained in Errror2 section of this post).
• That's it everything is great now.
  

HostForLIFE.eu IIS 7.5 Hosting
HostForLIFE.eu is European Windows Hosting Provider which focuses on Windows Platform only. We deliver on-demand hosting solutions including Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for companies of all sizes. We have customers from around the globe, spread across every continent. We serve the hosting needs of the business and professional, government and nonprofit, entertainment and personal use market segments.

Today I will show you, how to install IIS 7.5 a SMTP service and securing it.  Often the applications we deploy have a requirement to send alerts or messages to end users via system generated e-mails. If you have a mail server, such as Microsoft Exchange, installed in the same environment this usually handles this functionality for you. However, if the application is a standalone application which will deployed into an environment where no e-mail services exist, you will either need to implement a mail server which might be overkill if you are just going to be sending alerts and system generated messages, or create an SMTP service on the application server. A simple way to get this done is to install the SMTP server feature that is part of Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as every version of Windows Server before that. Once installed you would need to configure the SMTP service, test it and secure it. Below are the steps to follow:

Step 1 – Install the SMTP Service

Open Server Manager and go to ‘Add Features’ and Select ‘SMTP Server’. If you do not have IIS installed the server will prompt you to ‘Add Role Services and Features Required for SMTP Server’

Click ‘Next’ and the wizard will install the SMTP Server for you.

Step 2 – Set the SMTP Service to Automatic Start

By default Windows installs the service and sets it to manual start. If you restart the server at any time the SMTP service will not start automatically which will result in your application not being able to send any e-mail. Open the MMC Services Snap-In, Find the ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)’ Service and double-click it.

Set the ‘Start-Up Type’ to ‘Automatic’ Apply and close the window.

Step 3 – Open IIS 6.0 Manager

You will note on Windows Server 2008 (& R2) that it will install two IIS Managers. The SMTP server is managed through IIS 6.0 and not IIS 7.5.

Step 4 – Add a new Mail Domain

You now need to configure the mail domain. Expand the virtual folders on the left pane and then right-click on the centre pane. Select ‘New’ and ‘Domain…"’

Select the ‘Remote’ radio button and then click ‘Next’

Type your domain name in the text box provided and click on ‘Finish’. Do not add the @ symbol as per the example below.

Step 5 – Configure the New Domain

You now need to configure your new domain. Right-Click on the domain you have created and select ‘Properties’

Click on ‘Outbound Security’ and select your authentication type. In this example I am leaving the authentication to ‘Anonymous Access’ as I will lock down the server through limiting relay. Click ‘Ok’ and close all the domain windows.

Step 6 – Configure the SMTP Server

You now need to configure the SMTP Virtual Server. Right-click on the Virtual Server in the left pane and select ‘Properties’

Select the ‘Access’ Tab and Click on ‘Authentication’. Your Authentication at this level must match the authentication set at the domain level as per Step 5. In this example Anonymous Access is our preferred method.

Click on ‘Ok’ which will take you back to the previous window. Now click on ‘Relay’

An ‘Open Relay’ is the greatest risk to your SMTP server as it could be used by SPAMMERS to send their malware and other unsolicited mail. We are going to restrict this server to only accept mail and relay it for the localhost on which the application resides.
Ensure the Radio Button which states ‘Only the list below’ is selected. Untick the box which states ‘Allow all computers that successfully authenticate to relay, regardless of the list above’. Click on ‘Add’ and in the window provided type in the IP address of your server. Once done click ‘OK’.

Your ‘Relay Restrictions’ dialogue box should now look like the one below.

Click ‘Ok’. Your SMTP Server is now ready to send e-mail. You can click through the other configurations and change mail size limits and retry intervals etc. But by default the settings are good enough for this example.

Step 7 – Testing the SMTP Service

You can test the service using a Telnet session from the Command Line. Note that since Windows Server 2008 the Telnet Client is not part of the base install. You will need to install it using the ‘Add Features’ wizard as we did to install the SMTP Server in Step 1 above. If the server is situated behind a Firewall ensure that it will allow SMTP (TCP Port 25) outbound from your SMTP server.
Follow these steps as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153119
Open the Command Prompt and type ‘Telnet’ to start the Telnet client.
Type ‘set localecho’ hit enter and then type ‘open 127.0.0.1 25’ and hit Enter.

You will be presented with the SMTP Server Header.Now type ‘helo me’ note the single ‘l’ and hit Enter. The server will respond with Hello and the IP Address.
Now type ‘mail from:<yourname>@<yourdomain.com>’ and hit Enter. 
Now enter the address you want to send mail to by typing ‘rcpt to:<name>@<senddomain.com>.
Now type ‘Data’ and hit Enter.
Type ‘Subject:This is a test’ and hit Enter twice.
Type ‘Testing’ or anything else you want to send as body text and hit Enter.
type ‘.’ i.e. full stop and hit Enter.
Your mail should now be sent and should be received within standard e-mail timeframes.

HostForLIFE.eu IIS 7.5 Hosting
HostForLIFE.eu is European Windows Hosting Provider which focuses on Windows Platform only. We deliver on-demand hosting solutions including Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for companies of all sizes. We have customers from around the globe, spread across every continent. We serve the hosting needs of the business and professional, government and nonprofit, entertainment and personal use market segments.