Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide

Roles

As with any other enhanced functionality of Windows Server 2008, web server service is provided through a role. Interestingly, as discussed in the introductory section of this chapter, the modularity of IIS has resulted in a significantly scaled-back initial installation of IIS—in fact, if you choose to install the Web Server role, which is the most basic way to get IIS code on your Windows Server 2008 machine, you receive only the following pieces of the web server software (aside from the Windows Process Activation Service):

• Common HTTP services, including stubs to host static content, choose a default document for unspecific requests, browsing directories via text, and recording errors

• Health and diagnostic functionality, including logging and request monitoring

• Security code, including request filtering functionality (this is the old URLScan utility, which is now baked into the final release of IIS 7)

• Performance tools, including Gzip-based static content compression technology

• The IIS Management Console

That's it. You don't get any sort of dynamic hosting functionality with the basic Web Server role; you're limited to hosting text and simple HTML. This is the way systems will be going forward: you install a minimal set of functionalities and layer only what you require in specific scenarios on top of that base installation. This reduces overhead, improves security, and minimizes the potential attack surface of public-facing code.

But not everyone can only host static HTML content. ...