As we near release for Windows Server 2008, the IIS team has released a beta of a very important tool called the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool.

How to replicate content and setting for web servers continually arises and is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive. Perhaps the second, and closely related question is how to migrate from IIS 6 to IIS 7. This tool has been in development for months but has not been widely discussed publicly so I personally and delighted that it is finally public.

Those of you who need something like this to replicate 6-6, 6-7 and 7-7 scenarios – please download and test this tool.

IIS is thrilled to announce the Technical Preview 1 release of the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool! The tool provides deployment and migration support for IIS 6.0 and 7.0. It incorporates many features that enable web server administrators to deploy, sync and migrate sites, including configuration, content, SSL certificates and other types of content associated with a Web server.

This tool can be used on Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0 as well as Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0. Please note that this is a Technical Preview release of the tool and [u:2maevhlq]should not be used on production servers[/u:2maevhlq]. For a Tech Preview, only forum level support is available.

Download and read the walkthroughs:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8100895

Download the x86 version:

http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1602

Download the x64 version:

http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1603

Web Deployment Tool forum

http://forums.iis.net/1144.aspx

Web Deployment Team blog

http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/

Features

The following list contains several of the features in this version:

Synchronization and Snapshot of IIS 6.0/IIS 7.0

The sync operation provides administrators with a way to quickly synchronize a site or server and deploy changes to existing sites and servers. A synchronization allows you to synchronize one source with one destination. For example, you can synchronize two directory paths or two web servers. The sync can be performed with local or remote objects.

The snapshot, or archive, functionality allows administrators or developers to quickly take an archive of their web site or server for rollback, restore or backup purposes.

Migration from IIS 6.0

The migrate operation provides administrators with a way to migrate sites or entire servers from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0, including their settings and content. A migration is essentially a way of synchronizing, filtered by migration rules. For example, when migrating from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0, MS Deploy will check the value of some properties and see if it is the IIS 6.0 default. If it is the default, such as the log files directory, it will instead use the value set on the IIS 7.0 server. This enables a server admin to maintain new settings on IIS 7.0 while moving sites or applications from IIS 6.0.

Analysis of IIS 6.0 Installed Features

The analyze operation allows administrators to check what components are installed on the source server. In this way, they can determine if features are present that they will need in IIS 7.0 or that require more advanced setup than simply copying files. For example, ASP.NET requires more than a file copy and will need to be installed on the destination server.

Troubleshooting and Validation Features

For validating an operation, the -whatif flag allows administrators to see what actions would happen when they perform an operation. This is especially useful for performing sync or migration, when they want to validate what changes will be made before performing them. For troubleshooting, the -verboseLevel flag allows administrators to get rich detail about what operations are being performed, and upon failure, the ability to diagnose the problem.