Windows Server 2008 R2 Updates IIS

Windows Server 2008 R2 includes incremental improvements to keep IIS, its free, built-in Web server, an attractive platform for hosting Web sites and applications. Improvements in the latest version, IIS 7.5, focus on management and updates to the FTP service, which will be useful for organizations and hosters. However, perhaps the most important change is the addition of .NET Framework support to Server Core installations, which means that ASP.NET dynamic Web content and applications can be hosted on the minimal Server Core, greatly reducing the attack surface and effort necessary to keep the server patched and secure.

To go along with IIS 7.5, the latest version of IIS Media Services, a set of IIS extensions that are useful for sites delivering digital audio and video over the Web, were released in Sept. 2009. (See the sidebar “IIS Media Services“.)

ASP.NET on Server Core

Windows Server 2008 introduced a new installation mode, Server Core, which installs only the files needed to support a designated infrastructure role, such as running a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server or a Web server. The initial goal for Server Core was to allow administrators to create and manage infrastructure servers on a minimal (and therefore more efficient and secure) implementation of Windows Server. To meet this goal, the .NET Framework, which is a dependency for Microsoft’s ASP.NET platform for dynamic Web content and applications, was cut from the initial implementation of Server Core.