IIS Architecture

This section briefly describes the internal architecture of different versions of IIS, how IIS processes requests from clients, how IIS applications are isolated from one another, and the security identities of IIS processes and threads.

Use this information to understand what resources are available to your IIS application, how IIS handles content files of different types, such as static files, ASP files, or ISAPI files, and how IIS groups content files into applications. An introduction to the client/server relationship is included for first time readers who are unfamiliar with Web servers.

For more detailed information about IIS architecture, see the section titled "IIS 6.0 Architecture" in the IIS User Documentation that is included with IIS. For information about how IIS stores configuration information, see IIS Configuration Storage. For information about the features of IIS, see IIS Administration Technologies, IIS Development Technologies, and IIS Logging.

This section includes the following topics:

• The Role of IIS in the Client/Server Relationship

• IIS Architecture Overview

• IIS Core Functionality

• IIS Modes of Operation

• IIS Request Processing

• IIS Process Recycling