Over the past five years I have built several Highly available microsoft web hosting farms , hosted web apps, and associated database servers and supporting services, each one slight better than the last.

Web farms
No 1. IIS5, NLB base load balancing, every web site usesing same process identity, many sites is shared pool
No 2. IIS6, Cisco CSM load balanced, 2 Node Physcial, unique ID for every site / application
No 3, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site / application
No 4, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site / application, second site
No 5, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site,  Internet facing with SSL
No 6, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site,  Intranet facing with SSL
No 7, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site,  Intranet facing with SSL
No 8, IIS6, Cisco ACE Load Balanced, 4 Node Virutal, unique ID for every site,  Intranet facing with SSL, for UAT use.

FTP, centralise FTP gateway providing a single FTP solution to every windows / Sambe wen server inside the enterprise

WordPress MU, enterprise blog solution

Now Finally I get to build an IIS7 one and FTP7 with FTP over SSL, watch this space

This Blogging Platform is built on WordPress MU, WordPress MU is slightly different to WordPress in that it has support for multiple independent blogs on top of a single user database, when running in folder per blog mode WordPress MU is totally dependent on the apache MOD-ReWrite feature to rebuild URL in the fly. This is a feature that has been missing from IIS until now, Microsoft have released, albeit CTP1 at the moment, a URL rewrite module for IIS7.

WordPress and WordPress MU can also use url-rewrite to create “friendly” permalinks

Well I did it, installed a copy of WordPress MU on IIS7 in folder per blog mode

• Server 2008 enterprise
• IIS7 URL-ReWrite CTP1
•  WordPress MU 1.5.1
•  mysql-5.1.25-rc-win32
•  ZendCore-2.5.0-Windows-x86

Using the URL-Write Module and some help from IIS.net, it was fairly straight forward; URL-ReWrite is still in CTP1 and has a few known issues. For instance the import wizard correctly identifies the  [L] parameter in .htaccess and create the correct XML, but the ”stopProcessing” attribute does not get copied to the web.config file and the ReWritecondition flag created a NEW rule with no action , rather than apply the condition to the next rule.

So after a bit of fiddling and some help from IIS.NET I got it all working including CSS and themes for folder based blogs.
The Only issue I did not fix was an issue with ONE of the CSS files which controls the layout of the TOP of the admin pages,

SORTED !!!!!!!!!!

Just so i dont lose it the web.config file is here

And dont forget the rewrite server variable fix too

I have been working on a ZERO touch build script for IIS on and off for a few weeks,

One of the last stepping stone for formating the “data” drive prior to setting everything up

“FORMAT H: /FS:NTFS /V:ASG” will prompt for “do you want to erase all yoiu data”, and again if the disk is in use !

 So enter WMI, after only 20 mins of digging around the the internet I found some code to do a defrag, a few tweaks, and I have some VBS code that will format a DRIVE, NO questions, even if the drive is in use, and it is ONLY 7 lines

strComputer = “.”
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\” & strComputer & “\root\cimv2″)
Set colVolumes = objWMIService.ExecQuery (“Select * from Win32_Volume Where Name = ‘H:\\’”)
For Each objVolume in colVolumes
     errResult  = objvolume.dismount(1,0)
     errResult = objVolume.format(“NTFS”, 1, 4096, “ASG”, 0)
Next

After going the full duration, 3 interviews and an assessment day over 3months
I had “the Call” from Microsoft HR consultants this morning

Unfortunately it is a “NO Hire” that makes it the first job (ever) I have applied for that I have not got ! BUM

Got some good feedback, no surprises for me though

Good points

• General Technical knowledge is good, particularly in web services area
• Presentation content was well researched and has ALL of the appropriate points

Bad points

• Technical knowledge not deep enough in some areas AD GPO, and high end security got tripped up in duel vendor firewalls, I may have even been tripped up on SQL log shipping recovery process (I need to check), I also struggled to explain some of the decision points when I have built  HUGE intranet platforms
• Some of the business stuff is outside my comfort zone , which limits my ability to talk to business people
• Presentation style. In hind sight (the wonderful tool that it is) I spent too long researching the content, and not enough time rehearsing, end result is I will TOO reliant on my notes and came across as reading a script,

Just not quite what they are looking for at in a consultant at the moment

I can’t help feeling, the presentation delivery is totally my fault , and I KNOW I can do better
It is not my normal style to be dependent on notes, and running out of time to prior to the event rehearse is totally my fault and in excusable

I will now be wondering if I would have been better missing a few points and get the delivery right

Historically many bespoke application are developed on the same servers the prodcution application runs on. Often this server was built by the developers with little regards for consistancy. After all developers develop applications for a living, not build server infrastructure.

Developing an application on the production server can lead to many problems, particularly if that server build is not quite right or the developer is a little wet behind the ears and does not considure scaling issues and hard coded resource refernces. Then of course it is always possible to cripple the production server by testing rogue application code at the whim a developer. I could witter on for ages about this, bit i want to get on towards what needs to be done to consolidate these applications to central managed infrastructure. Putting to one side the issues of supporting the, often extremely large, consolidation platform, many problems need to be over come to ensure the successful migration / consolidation of bespoke applications in the enterprise.

<UPDATE>
It is worth pointing out that these applications should be consolidated to a well defined, well managed platform, where each appliaction exists in a logical container where ALL interfaces and features are defined and controlled by the infrastructure. Hopeful reducing or even eliminating many of the future gotchas

It should also be noted the technology is only a small part of the battle. Accurate recording of succesfull migration, ownership, and reporting of KPIs also need to be considered. i am not talking a few spreadsheets, it needs to be a fully operation CMDB. spreadsheets are not searchable on MASS, so without a proper CMDB you still only have a huge quantity of unstructure data which is be out of data before you can use it
</UPDATE>

 So this is my list of check points and Gotchas

Information Required

• Who owns the application (business owner, not a Project manager) ?
• Do they have resource to manage coding changes that may be required ?
• Who Need access to develop the application ?
• Who supports the APP ?
• Does the app have a offical supoprt team ?
• Does the app have approval from the corporate security guys?
• How many users ?
• Does it need access to employ data / GAL ?
• .net version requirements
• Database Requirements (oracle and SQL), linked Servers
• Database requirements (un supported and  will need to migrate)
• Downstream dependencies
• Upstream dependencies
• LOB implications (many corporates have to segragate their LOBs BT Openreach for example)
• Any 3rd party access customers (via portals)
• Any 3rd party access offshore users
• Any 3rd party access offshore support
• Any 3rd party access vendors COTS software
• Quantity of SMTP traffic generated
• Database growth expectations
• File Space growth expectations
• Any confidential data requirements
• Any encryption Key management requirements

Things that may need to change

• Db connect strings
• Tnsnames migration to non tns connection strings
• SMTP parameters
• Cold fusion with ldap queries
• Hard coded File paths
• Hard coded Server names
• Hard coded data (other)

Gothchas

• Oracle client compatibility
• File system access by application
• 3rd party components
• Has it been used to running with elevated privileges
• Do any DTS/SSIS need access to file systems
• Does SQL run as a service account, What perms does this have
• Self referencing http calls such as web services (can break on hardware load balanced farms)
• SMTP components
• Non web based components, windows exe, scripts or services
• Use of MS Office components
• Use of MSACCESS
• Sql optimisation (query and indexes)
• Cold fusion version (4.x , 5 code not 100% compatible with MX series)
• Cold fusion with AD  authentication (will need code change if using bluedragon CFML engine)
• Asp/asp.net auth against local accounts
• .net data components and memory usage
• SSL
• Session management
• Web gardens
• .net assemblies in bin folder
• .net assemblies in GAC
• .net trust requirements
• Frontpage (Yuck)
• WebDAV (Security implications)
• Application session variables cannot be seen by other servers in the farm
• Do the support guys have SA access to the current SQL server
• Do the Support guys have console access to the current  SQL server
• Do the support guys have console access to the web current  server
• Date time issues on code developed on servers with wrong regional configuration

Guess who has just been had by the date format thing between the Queens English and Microsoft English

Query Error: The conversion of a char data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range datetime value.
The statement has been terminated. Datasource: PINBACK Native Error Code: 242 Executing SQL:

Data was ’14/05/2008 13:47:30′

the Fix was the Language for the SQL user

Over the past 4 years I have had to work with some of the best web application developers I have ever met, unfortunately I have also had the miss-fortune of working with some of the worst developers on the planet.
With this in mind, while attending the Microsoft 2008 launch event,  I was very impressed to pick up a book entitled “the Developer Highway code : The drive for safer coding!” 
This book is fantastic, and has hundreds of coding guidelines and server configuration recommendations. And absolute MUST read for any ASP, ASP.NET developer and / or web server support staff.

The best bit, it is available as a free ebook, from Microsoft:
http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/msdn/devdave/mic472_dev_highway_all.pdf

some REALLY rough and not very elegent code but this is my website create code for IIS6

Points to note:

• I centrally manage the W3SVC instance number, so they are unique across all of the platforms in the enterprise, hence the instance number is specified , not generated in the function
• I use AD based IWAM accounts to connect to CIFS (UNC) based content, so these have to be specified
• hosts string is a comma separated list of hostheaders,

Function createsite(ByVal StrMachine As String, ByVal StrSitenumber As String, ByVal StrSiteDesc As String, ByRef Hosts As String, ByVal IwamUser As String, ByVal IWamPass As String, ByVal FilePath As String, ByVal AppPool As String, ByVal DefaultLogonDomain As String) As String

‘ need to validate the NEW hostheaders first
Dim WebServiceObj As DirectoryEntry
Dim siteexists As Boolean
Dim Sites As DirectoryEntries
Dim objSITE As DirectoryEntry
Dim Newwebserver As DirectoryEntry
Dim objIIS As DirectoryEntry
Dim objVirtualDirectory As DirectoryEntry
Dim headers() As String
Dim counter As Int16headers = Split(Hosts, “,”)Try

WebServiceObj = New DirectoryEntry(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC”)
siteexists = False
For Each objSITE In WebServiceObj.Children
‘not all object in collection are web sites, so need to test BEFORE drilling into hosts property
   If UCase(objSITE.SchemaClassName) = “IISWEBSERVER” Then
      If UCase(objSITE.Path.ToString) = UCase(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC/” & StrSitenumber) Then ‘site already exists
         siteexists = True
      End If
   End If
Next

If siteexists Then
   Newwebserver = New DirectoryEntry(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC/” & StrSitenumber)
   createsite = “Site Already exists”
Else
   Newwebserver = WebServiceObj.Children.Add(StrSitenumber, “IIsWebServer”)
   createsite = “Create New Site”
End If

Newwebserver.Properties(“ServerComment”).Item(0) = StrSiteDesc
For counter = 0 To UBound(headers)
   Newwebserver.Properties(“ServerBindings”).Add(“:80:” & headers(counter))
Next
Newwebserver.CommitChanges()
Newwebserver = Nothing
objIIS = New DirectoryEntry(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC/” & StrSitenumber)
siteexists = False

For Each objSITE In objIIS.Children ‘ check each object in site, if Vdir is it called root
‘not all object in collection are web sites, so need to test BEFORE drilling into propertys
   If UCase(objSITE.SchemaClassName) = “IISWEBVIRTUALDIR” Then
      If UCase(objSITE.Path.ToString) = UCase(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC/” & StrSitenumber & “/ROOT”) Then ‘site already exists
         siteexists = True
      End If
   End If
Next

If siteexists Then ‘Connection to exitsing site
   objVirtualDirectory = New DirectoryEntry(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/W3SVC/” & StrSitenumber & “/Root”)
Else ‘ create NEW one 
   objVirtualDirectory = objIIS.Children.Add(“Root”, “IISWebVirtualDir”)
   createsite = “Site Created”
End If

‘fix all the properties

   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AccessScript”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“Path”).Item(0) = FilePath
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AnonymousUserName”).Item(0) = IwamUser
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AnonymousUserPass”).Item(0) = IWamPass
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AnonymousPasswordSync”).Item(0) = False
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“DefaultLogonDomain”).Item(0) = DefaultLogonDomain
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AppFriendlyName”).Item(0) = AppPool
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AppIsolated”).Item(0) = 2
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AppPoolId”).Item(0) = AppPool
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AccessWrite”).Item(0) = False
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AccessRead”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AccessExecute”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AccessScript”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AuthAnonymous”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Properties(“AuthBasic”).Item(0) = True
   objVirtualDirectory.Invoke(“AppCreate”, True)
   objVirtualDirectory.CommitChanges() Catch ex As Exception‘createsite = ex.Message

Finally

   WebServiceObj = Nothing
   siteexists = Nothing
   Sites = Nothing
   objSITE = Nothing
   Newwebserver = Nothing
   objIIS = Nothing
   objVirtualDirectory = NothingEnd Try

End Function

I am slowing gaining some good experience in coding with visual studio 2008 and VB.NET and some C# for ASP.NET

But I fell into a corker this week

I have a simple form with a dropdown list box, the items in this drop down list box are populated from a data string obtained from an external webservice during the page load, Nice solutions or so I thought

1st problem a page load occurs during a post back, so the dropdown list was getting populated twice, once during the initial page load, and AGAIN during a validation post back on a textbox

So I decided to clear the dropdown list before adding the items

Some hours of frustration later I discovered the clearing and reloading the list items was not such a good plan, Pageload also goes off during a form submission which then nukes the selectedvalue data for the dropdown list

End result, test the dropdown list item count before to see if I have already added any item, of not add them

Sorted
1. My selected values work properly
2. My postbacks are quicker as the webservices call only occurs on initial load

I know this is VB.NET but i was in a hurry and my C# sucks
this is mostly cobbled togther from other stuff I found on the net, none of which did EXACTLY what I needed
When I get the time i will publish some of my other functions, including IIS6 site create and IIS6 FTP Profile Create

This is a simple VB.NET function to create and IIS6 Application pool
This function is designed to specify the UserId and Password for the AppPool Identity and was used in an environment where domain credentials were used

Function CreateAppPool(ByVal StrMachine As String, ByVal AppName As String, ByVal UserName As String, ByVal Password As String) As  String

CreateAppPool = “success”
Dim foundapp As Boolean
Dim apppools As DirectoryEntries
Dim apppool2 As DirectoryEntry
Dim apppool As DirectoryEntry
Dim NewAppPool As Object
foundapp = False
apppool2 = New DirectoryEntry(“IIS://” & StrMachine & “/w3svc/AppPools”)
apppools = apppool2.Children
‘test for duplicate poolname
For Each apppool In apppools ‘ scan each current app pool for check its name
  If UCase(apppool.Name) = UCase(AppName) Then ‘ no need to check class type as everything at this level is a AppPool
    foundapp = True
  End If
Next
If Not foundapp Then
  ‘create the APP Pool and set unique information, most of the data is inherited
  NewAppPool = apppool2.Children.Add(AppName, “IIsApplicationPool”)
  NewAppPool.Properties(“AppPoolIdentityType”).Item(0) = 3
  NewAppPool.Properties(“WAMUserName”).Item(0) = UserName
  NewAppPool.Properties(“WAMUserPass”).Item(0) = Password
  NewAppPool.CommitChanges()
  NewAppPool = Nothing
Else
  CreateAppPool = “Duplicate AppPool found”
End If
  apppool2 = Nothing
  apppools = Nothing
End Function