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Administering Servers Remotely in IIS 6.0

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

You can administer your server remotely by running IIS on an intranet or the Internet. You can use the following tools for this purpose:

  • IIS Manager: You can use IIS Manager on your server to remotely connect to and administer an intranet server running IIS 5.0, IIS 5.1, or IIS 6.0 (IIS 3.0 and IIS 4.0 are not supported).

  • Terminal Services: Terminal Services does not require you to install IIS Manager on the remote client computer because, once connected to the server running IIS, you use IIS Manager on the Web server as if you are logged on to the server locally.

  • Remote Administration (HTML) Tool: You can use the Remote Administration (HTML) tool to administer your IIS Web server from any Web browser on your intranet. This version of the Remote Administration (HTML) tool is supported only on servers running Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6.0.

    Note

    If you install the Remote Administration (HTML) Tool for IIS 6.0 on a server that has been upgraded to Windows Server 2003 from Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, you may receive an error when you try to view the administrative Web site. This error occurs because, by default, buffering is set to False in IIS 4.0. However, in IIS 6.0, buffering is set to True by default, and this setting is not changed during upgrade. To view the administrative Web site in IIS 6.0, you must enable buffering.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /user:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

Procedures

To administer your intranet server remotely by using IIS Manager

  1. Start IIS Manager on any computer on your network that is running a member of the Windows Server 2003 family.

  2. To connect to a remote computer running IIS, right-click the local computer, and then click Connect.

  3. In the Connect to Computerdialog box, in the Computer name box, type the name of the computer to which you want to connect, or click Browse to browse to the computer, and then click OK.

Note

If you do not have TCP/IP and a name resolution server, such as Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) installed, you might not be able to connect to an IIS computer using the computer name. As an alternative, you can also use the IP address of the IIS computer, or you can add the host name and IP address to the local hosts file on the computer, which is located at %systemdrive%\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. For more information, see "TCP/IP" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.

To administer your server remotely using Terminal Services

  1. Install the Terminal Services client on the computer you are using to connect.

  2. While the remote computer is running, start Terminal Services and identify the name of the remote computer.

  3. From the Terminal Services window, administer IIS as you would locally. You can start IIS Manager on any computer on your network that is running Windows, or you can open a Web-based server-management appliance. You can also run scripts from the Terminal Services window.

To enable the Remote Administration (HTTP) tool through Control Panel

  1. In Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.

  2. In the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, click Add/Remove Windows Components.

  3. In the Windows Components Wizard dialog box, in Components, click Application Server, and then click Details.

  4. In the Application Server dialog box, in Subcomponents of Application Server, click Internet Information Services (IIS), and then click Details.

  5. In the Internet Information Services (IIS) dialog box, inSubcomponents of Internet Information Services (IIS), click World Wide Web Service, and then click Details.

  6. In the World Wide Web Service dialog box, in Subcomponents of World Wide Web Service, select the Remote Administration (HTML) check box, and then click OK.

  7. Click OK two more times, and then, in the Windows Components Wizard dialog box, click Next.

  8. After setup is complete, click Finish to close the wizard.

To enable buffering on the administrative Web site (for upgrades from IIS 4.0 to IIS 6.0 only)

  1. In IIS Manager, double-click servername (local computer).

  2. Double-click Web Sites.

  3. Right-click the Administration Web site, and then click Properties.

  4. Click Home Directory, click Configuration, and then click Options.

  5. Check the Enable buffering check box, and then click OK twice.

To view the Remote Administration (HTML) tool from IIS Manager

  • Expand the local computer, expand the Web Sites folder, right-click the Administration Web site, and click Browse.

To administer an IIS Web server with the Remote Administration (HTML) tool

  • Open your intranet site from a Web browser and type the following in the address bar: https://hostname:8098

    Replace hostname with the name of the computer that you want to connect to and administer.

For more information about how to manage servers remotely by using the Remote Administration (HTML) tool, see HOW TO: Remotely Administer Internet Information Services in Windows Server 2003.