Professional Microsoft IIS 8

Chapter 2

IIS 8.0 Architecture

What's in this chapter?

• IIS architecture basics
• IIS 7.0 and later architecture
• IIS 8.0 architecture
• Windows Server 2012 architecture

The origins of IIS as a service to deliver data via HTTP and Gopher requests determined the architecture of IIS for six generations. Over the years, IIS architecture evolved from serving simple requests and providing a Common Gateway Interface (CGI), to including interpreted scripting languages for Active Server Pages (ASP), now referred to as ASP Classic. Newer versions added the ability to include the ASP.NET framework for server-processed programs, as well as brand-new technologies such as AJAX and Silverlight.

Understanding the basic architecture of IIS through previous versions will help you understand the changes in IIS 8.0, as well as problems in converting applications and sites from previous versions. IIS has often been compared to the Apache open source server, and often derided as not providing the configurability of Apache. Changes in IIS 7.0 that have been continued through IIS 8.0 have made IIS far more configurable than past versions and allowed many applications that relied on Apache, such as those written with PHP, to not only run on IIS, but also to coexist with applications in many languages, including ASP.NET.

Many organizations chose Apache as their web platform, often because of misinformation, and in some cases have regretted the decision. Although most organizations can work with either web ...