Robert McMurray: Earlier today Microsoft released the RTM version of the Microsoft FTP Service for IIS 7.0 for Windows Server 2008!

Listed below are the links for the download pages for each of the individual installation packages:

FTP 7 (x86) Installation Package
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1619

FTP 7 (x64) Installation Package
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&i=1620&g=6

We've all seen it happen. Two servers are configured the same way, but suddenly, one of them stops working. The content is same, everything looks right, but one server is exhibiting unusual behavior. You could try to take the config from the working server and overwrite the broken one. But that won't tell you what happened, nor if it might happen again.

There's also the case where you only have one server, which suddenly breaks. Restoring from backup if you have one or manually sifting through config might be your only option. But often the problem isn't easy to spot and backups take time and effort to restore.

Enter MS Deploy. You can compare two live sites, a site with an archive, or compare two archives. In this case, I'll show you comparison of a live web site and an archive. An archive is like a snapshot of a site or server at a given point in time. When you take the archive, you may be doing it for a manual backup, to do an offline sync or to make a copy of a specific version of your app. It's a great way to quickly take a snapshot of your working app (and config) before you make changes.

http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/archive/2008/02/02/using-ms-deploy-to-compare-sites-or-see-what-components-your-site-uses.aspx

via http://blogs.iis.net/msdeploy/archive/2008/01/22/welcome-to-the-web-deployment-team-blog.aspx

Technical Preview 1

x86
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1602

x64
http://www.iis.net/downloads/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1603

Background:

Installing Exchange 2007 SP1 gives an error on the Mailbox Role.

Error:

Unable to remove product with code 6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b.  Unable to remove product with code 6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b. Fatal error during installation. Error code is 1603.
Fatal error during installation

Solution:

1. Stop the "Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer" service and the "Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search" service.
2. Remove the Microsoft Full Text Indexing Engine for Exchange using msiexec.exe /X {6574fdc2-40fc-405a-9554-22d1ce15686b}
3. Refer to http://consumer.installshield.com/kb.asp?id=Q111019 for additional causes.

Background:

Installing Exchange 2007 SP1 on a Client Access Server gives the error "A failure occurred while trying to update metabase properties. The system cannot find the path specified."

Error:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeSetup
Event Category: Microsoft Exchange Setup
Event ID: 1002
Description:
Exchange Server component Client Access Role failed.
Error: Error:
A failure occurred while trying to update metabase properties.
The system cannot find the path specified.

Further, the Exchange 2007 SP1 log contained:
[2] [WARNING] IIS://<fqdn>/W3SVC/1/ROOT/EWS was not found. Please make sure you have typed it correctly.

Cause:

Note: The SP1 log is located at <system drive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log

1) Ensure there are no orphaned virtual directories in the Exchange metabase, as per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998589.aspx.

2) Ensure all the necessary CAS virtual directories are present.  Browse the IIS metabase using the IIS Resource Kit Tool, creatively named "Metabase Explorer".  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840671 has a download link.
The Client Access Server virtual directories are as follows:
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Autodiscover
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/EWS
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/owa
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Exchange
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/ExchWeb
/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Public
( as per http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201672.aspx )

3) For directories which are not present in IIS Manager and/or missing from the IIS metabase, remove the Exchange directory, and recreate it.
For example, in the case of my error, I did a "Get-WebServicesDirectory | fl" which revealed the /ROOT/EWS entry - with the missing IIS metabase entry.  Thus, I removed the EWS directory using the Remove-WebServicesDirectory cmdlet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124231.aspx ) and recreated it using the New-WebServicesDirectory cmdlet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125176.aspx .)

You can check all the access directories: (via Exchange Shell)
Get-WebServicesDirectory | fl
Get-OabVirtualdirectory | fl
Get-ClientAccessServer | fl
Get-OabVirtualdirectory | fl
and look for any directory that is missing.

4) Reattempt installation.  Pull the log as necessary and keep Googling error messages, or try to understand the errors. =)

5) Verify Exchange installation - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125254.aspx

6) Since we messed with them, make sure the web services are functioning: Test-OutlookWebServices -identity administrator | ft * -AutoSize -Wrap

After installing the RC0 of the IIS7 FTP service on Server 2008, I had some local Windows Firewall issues.

Abstract
This post is the first one from the mini-series on firewall configuration for FTP7 (full product name: Microsoft FTP Publishing Service for IIS 7.0). The goal of this post if to provide instructions on how to setup local Windows Firewall to enable access to FTP over non-secure or secure connections. This post does NOT address IP address translation related issues and other issues that apply when there is an external firewall (such as ISA server) between client and server.

Background
It is often a challenge to setup firewall rules for FTP server to work correctly. The root cause for this challenge lies in the FTP protocol architecture.
Each FTP client requires 2 connections to be maintained between client and server.
FTP commands are transferred over connection called control channel. That is the one that typically connects to well known FTP port 21.
Any data transfer, such as directory listing, upload and download happen on secondary connection called data channel.

To open port 21 on firewall is an easy task. But having port 21 opened ONLY means that clients will be able to connect to FTP server, authenticate successfully, create, delete directories but will NOT be able to see directory listings or be able to upload/download files. It is because data connections for FTP server are not allowed to pass through the firewall.

Many firewalls simplify the challenge with data connections by scanning FTP traffic and dynamically allowing data connections through. Some firewalls enable such filters by default but it is not always the case. These firewall filters are able to detect what ports are going to be used for data transfers and temporarily open them on firewall so that clients can open data connections. Windows Firewall has such filter. It is called StatefulFtp.

Guide

http://blogs.iis.net/jaroslad/archive/2007/09/29/windows-firewall-setup-for-microsoft-ftp-publishing-service-for-iis-7-0.aspx

I've also created a PDF, here.  3 pages, nicely formatted for printing.

Today Microsoft is eager to announce availability of the Go Live release of Microsoft FastCGI Extension for IIS 5.1/6.0 (FastCGI Extension) as a free download. The Go Live release is the last step in the Microsoft beta process and represents the highest level of quality and reliability. For the first time, customers have a license that permits them to deploy the FastCGI Extension on their production Internet Information Services 6.0 (IIS 6) Web servers.

Download FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 and IIS5.1 - http://www.iis.net/go/1521

What is it?

With Microsoft’s implementation of the FastCGI open standard, IT Professionals will be able to host PHP applications on Windows Server® 2003 and IIS 6 with increased reliability, scalability, and security. Customers also know that they will be able to count on Microsoft to stand by and service the Microsoft FastCGI Extension. By supporting the open standard, Microsoft has made it possible for PHP and other CGI compliant languages to be hosted efficiently and effectively on Windows Server 2003 and IIS. With the addition of FastCGI, IIS reliably and performantly hosts ASP.NET; classic ASP and PHP Web applications, making it easy for IT Professionals to standardize on IIS and Windows Server as their Web platform of choice.”

Where can I run it?

This FastCGI Extension release is supported on IIS 6 on Windows Server 2003 for a fully scalable production environment and on IIS 5.1 on Windows XP in order to support developers who build their Web applications on Windows client machines. This provides developers easy access to build and deploy a broader range of Web applications on the Microsoft platform. To further facilitate application support, the IIS product group is working with the community to test and optimize popular PHP applications on this platform.

What about support for Server 2008 / IIS 7.0?

Looking ahead, betas of Windows Server 2008, already include the FastCGI Extension as a completely integrated feature of Internet Information Services IIS 7.0 (IIS7). The new modular architecture introduced in IIS 7 will provide additional functionality to PHP applications by enabling them to take advantage of new managed code services.