AppCmd

IIS backup and restore

Backup and restore IIS 10 webserver configuration with appcmd.exe and PowerShell. If you are using Windows Server IIS as your web server software, it is important to make regular backups. Luckily, using appcmd or PowerShell, this is quite easy.

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AppCmd introduction and examples

The AppCmd command is your one-stop-shop for administering Windows Server IIS web servers. In combination with WinRM it’s your Swiss Army knife for your daily routine. This post introduces appcmd and provides you with a lot of helpful appcmd examples.

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Set IIS Application Pool recycle defaults to Specific Times, not Regular Time Interval

By default, an IIS application pool (or “AppPool”) recycles on a regular time interval of 1740 minutes, or 29 hours. One reason for this time interval is that application pools don’t recycle at the same moment every day (every day at 07.00 for example). However, sometimes you want to change this regular time interval to a specific time schedule. And when you try to configure this in IIS Manager, it gives you an error. Luckily, AppCmd and PowerShell come to the rescue!

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Conditionally start Application Pools on remote IIS web servers

In my routine, I occasionally have to start multiple website application pools when they are in a stopped state. On more than one web server. Being a lazy system administrator, I find it too much work to log on every server. Therefore I start those application pools in a loop. A condition for me to start application pools is that the application pool AutoStart property is set to true. This is because I set autostart to false when I disable hacked websites, and those application pools may not be started until all problems are resolved of course. To start application pools, I use the AppCmd command.

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Custom PHP version on IIS Express and WebMatrix 3

PHP 7 with OPcache in IIS Express for Microsoft WebMatrix 3: learn how to create your own PHP development environment easily with Microsoft WebMatrix and IIS Express and your own custom PHP version. Note: this guide also applies to newer PHP versions, just change the version numbers.

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Target multiple ASP.NET versions with AppCmd.exe

When administering an IIS web server you frequently have to use AppCmd.exe to make configuration changes. Whether it is for a specific web site or server wide. Some think AppCmd is very limited: if you don’t know the options to use, you may think you can only address the x64 .NET Framework version, or only x86, or you can only target the current active .NET Framework version. Fortunately this is not true, you can address both x86 and x64 versions of .NET with AppCmd. Read how…

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Add websites and application pools to IIS with PowerShell, in a for loop

How to use PowerShell to create websites and application pools in IIS… A client of the company I work for wanted to quickly add 60 sub-domains to his website. But, the sub-domains had to be created as self contained IIS websites, and running in their own application pools. Luckily, the client wanted 60 consecutive sub-domain names, e.g. “sub01.example.com”, “sub02.example.com”, …, … up till “sub60.example.com”. This made our task a bit easier, because we could easily script this in PowerShell

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Multiple IIS 6.0/7.5 Vulnerabilities

Multiple vulnerabilities found in IIS 6.0 and 7.5 web servers. On the Full-Disclosure mailinglist Kingcope posted several IIS 6.0 and 7.5 bugs. Because I am a Windows Server and IIS admin, I took some time to test the various vulnerabilities …

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