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IIS Interview Questions & Answers

IIS Interview Questions and Answers

IIS Server is web server provided by Microsoft host websites with ease. Below are IIS
Interview questions and answers which will help you to crack IIS interview to grab
IIS admin position in top companies.
These IIS interview questions and answer are provided in lucid language along with
extra reference materials, which can be used by both experience IIS admin &
Fresher.
What is IIS ?
Internet Information Services (IIS), formerly known as Internet Information Server, is
a web server produced by Microsoft. IIS is used with Microsoft Windows OSs and is
the Microsoft-centric competition to Apache, the most popular web server used with
Unix/Linux-based systems.
What is the Role of IIS ?
Visual studio has ASP.NET Engine which is capable to run Asp.net web application.
So we just click on Run button to start the application.
IIS provides a redesigned WWW architecture which can help you achieve better
performance, scalability, reliability and security for our Web sites. IIS supports
following Protocol HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP Etc. We need to host the site on IIS,
when request comes from client it first hits the IIS Server, then the server passed it
to ASP.NET worker process to execute. Then the response also passes to client via
IIS itself. Note only Hosting of Site we can create our FTP Server, SMTP Server using
IIS itself. There are different version of IIS available like 5.1, 6.0, 7.0 etc.
What are hardware requirements of IIS Server?
An IIS server requirement is based on what application we are going to deploy on
web server (frontend and backend) & number hits expected at server.
Minimum configuration for any web server is,
Any mid range server
2GB RAM
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160 GB Hard drive

What are difference versions of IIS available? Or what is difference

between IIS 6 and IIS 7?
Almost every version of IIS was released either alongside or with a version of
Microsoft Windows:

IIS 1.0 was initially released as a free add-on for Windows NT 3.51.
IIS 2.0 was included with Windows NT 4.0.
IIS 3.0, which was included with Service Pack 2 of Windows NT 4.0, introduced
the Active Server Pages dynamic scripting environment.
IIS 4.0 was released as part of the "Option Pack" for Windows NT 4.0. It
introduced the new MMC-based administration application.
IIS 5.0 shipped with Windows 2000 and introduced additional authentication
methods, support for the WebDAV protocol, and enhancements to ASP.IIS 5.0
also dropped support for the Gopher protocol
IIS 5.1 was shipped with Windows XP Professional, and was nearly identical to
IIS 5.0 on Windows 2000.
IIS 6.0 included with Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64
Edition, added support for IPv6 and included a new worker process model
that increased security as well as reliability.
IIS 7.0 was a complete redesign and rewrite of IIS, and was shipped with
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. IIS 7.0 included a new modular
design that allowed for a reduced attack surface and increased performance.
It also introduced a hierarchical configuration system allowing for simpler site
deploys, a new Windows Forms-based management application, new
command-line management options and increased support for the .NET
Framework.IIS 7.0 on Vista does not limit the number of allowed connections
as IIS on XP did, but limits concurrent requests to 10 (Windows Vista Ultimate,
Business, and Enterprise Editions) or 3 (Vista Home Premium). Additional
requests are queued, which hampers performance, but they are not rejected
as with XP.
IIS 7.5 was included in Windows 7 (but it must be turned on in the side panel
of Programs and Features) and Windows Server 2008 R2. IIS 7.5 improved
WebDAV and FTP modules as well as command-line administration in Power
Shell. It also introduced TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 support and the Best Practices
Analyzer tool and process isolation for application pools.[10]
IIS 8.0 is only available in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. IIS 8.0
includes SNI (binding SSL to hostnames rather than IP addresses), Application
Initialization, centralized SSL certificate support, and multicore scaling on
NUMA hardware, among other new features.

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IIS 8.5 is included in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. This version
includes idle worker-Process page-out, Dynamic Site Activation, Enhanced
Logging, ETW logging, and Automatic Certificate Rebind.
IIS 10 is included in Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10. This version
includes support for HTTP/2.

How to Install IIS Manger?

In Windows, access the Control Panel and click Add or Remove Programs.
In the Add or Remove Programs window, click Add/Remove Windows
Components.
Select the Internet Information Services (IIS) check box, click Next, then click
Finish.

How to start IIS Manger?

There are two ways to start IIS Manger.

Run > inetmgr

Control panel > Administrative tools

What are main layer of IIS architecture?

IIS having mainly two layers Kernel Mode and User Mode
1. Kernel Mode

HTTP.SYS

2. User Mode

Web Admin Service

Virtual Directory
Application Pool

What are IIS services?

Based on IIS role IIS can provide below IIS Services.

www services
FTP services
SMTP services
NNTP services

What are IIS Port Numbers?

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HTTP : 80 (default port for iis), SSL : 443,FTP : 21,SMTP : 25,POP2 : 109,POP3 :
110,IMAP : 143,NNTP : 119,LDAP : 89, DNS : 53,DHCP : 67
What are the Error & Stats codes available in IIS?

100
200
300
400
500

Series
Series
Series
Series
Series

Informational
Success
Redirection
Client Error
Server Error

How Internet Information Services works?

When client request for an aspx pages, request comes to kernel level off IIS means
to HTTP.SYS . HTTP.SYS receives the request and based on the application pool
name [ Which is already registered with the HTTP.SYS ] it send the request to worker
process. Windows Activation process works as mediator of them. w3wp.exe loads
"aspnet_isapi.dll" files to start the HTTPRuntime . HTTPRuntime creates
HTTPApplication objects and all requests are passed through HTTPModule and finally
reached to HttpHandler . This is the request pipeline. After end of Request pipeline
ASP.NET Page lifecycle starts.
What is role of HTTP.SYS in IIS?
HTTP.SYS is the kernel level components of IIS. All client requests comes from client
hit the HTTP.SYS of Kernel level.
HTTP.SYS then makes a queue for each and every request for each and individual
application pool based on the request. Whenever we create any application pool IIS
automatically registers the pool with HTTP.SYS to identify the particular during
request processing.
What is Application Pool in IIS?
Application pools are used to separate sets of IIS worker processes that share the
same configuration and application boundaries.
Application pools used to isolate our web application for better security, reliability,
and availability and performance and keep running without impacting each other .
The worker process serves as the process boundary that separates each application
pool so that when one worker process or application is having an issue or recycles,
other applications or worker processes are not affected. One Application Pool can
have multiple worker process Also.
Or we can simply say that, An application pool is a group of one or more URLs that
are served by a worker process or set of worker processes. Any Web directory or
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virtual directory can be assigned to an application pool. So that one website cannot
be affected by other, if u used separated application pool.
What is the worker process for IIS 5.1 and IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0?

For IIS 5.1 > aspnet_wp.exe

For IIS 6.0 > w3wp.exe
For IIS 7.0 > w3wp.exe

What are the different types of application pool available in IIS 7.0 ?
1. DefaultAppPool (Integrated)
2. ClassicAppPool
What is the Name of Default Application Pool in IIS?
We can create new application pool IIS with different settings, but IIS having its own
default application pool named : DefaultAppPool.
What are App Pool and App Domain? What is the difference between these
two?

Application Pool is created the each and every website.

Application Domain is created to one domain Purpose.

What are the properties of App Pool in IIS?

1.
2.
3.
4.

1.Recycling
2.Perfomance
3.Health
4.Identity

What is the default authentication setting for IIS?

Anonymous authentication is the default authentication mode for any site that is
hosted on IIS, and it runs under the IUSR_[ServerName] account.
What are the different types of application pool Identity available in IIS?

In IIS 6.0 - NetworkServices | LocalService | LocalSystem

In IIS 7.0 - NetworkServices | LocalService | LocalSystem |
ApplicationPoolIdentity

Name of default application pool Identity of IIS6.0?

Default Identity of IIS 6.0 is Network Services.

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Network Services is having very minimum rights on your system? The user can only
have the read access of the site.
What is Recycling of Application Pool?
Recycling Application pool means recycle the Worker process (w3wp.exe ) and the
memory used for the web application.
There are two types of recycling related with Application pool
1. Recycling Worker Process - Predefined Settings
2. Recycling Worker Process - Based on Memory
Can we create one Application Pool From Another Application Pool ?
Yes. We can.
While creating Application Application Pool From IIS, there should have two option
available first one is for Default Setting and Another is for Existing Setting as
template.
We can select the second one and from the drop down listed below we can select
any on the Application Pool as Template.
What is the use of Enable Pinging Properties for Application Pool ?
IIS should periodically monitor the health of a worker process [ Idle or not , Time for
recycle or not, All Worker process are running properly or not ] .
Pining means, Activation Process monitor Worker process performance, health, idle
time etc.
By default it sets to 30s .
How we can save Application Pool Settings?
Application Pool Settings can be save as "XML" Format.
Right Click on Application Pool > All Task > Save Configuration to a File .
This will save all the settings of Application Pool as an XML file. We can make it
password protected also.
What are the Different Authentication Methods (Using Windows
Authentication) which are provided by IIS ?
IIS Server provides four different kinds of Authentication Methods they are :
1. Anonymous Method
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If we select this authentication, IIS doesn't perform any authentication so that
anyone can access the application.
2. Basic Method
If we select this method, the users who access the application should provide
windows username and password to access the application. Although this is sent
through a network by transmitting direct text so it it very insecure.
3. Digest Method
This method is almost equal to Basic method but the difference is the password is
hashed before it is transmitted through out a network.
4. Windows Integrated Method
In this the application uses the Kerberos protocol to validate (Authenticate) the user.
This uses a Secret key cryptography which provides string authentication for
Client/Server applications.
What is the default user name of an anonymous login in IIS?
In IIS, an anonymous user will be given with a user name of IUSR_MachineName.
What is web garden ?
By default Each Application Pool runs with a Single Worker Process (W3Wp.exe). We
can assign multiple Worker Process With a Single Application Pool. An Application
Poll with multiple Worker process called Web Gardens. Each Worker Process Should
have their own Thread and Own Memory space.
How we can create a Web Garden ?
For creating web garden we need to go to Application Pool, then Right Click on
Application Pool > Properties > Go to Performance Tab
In Web Garden Section, increase the number of worker process. By default it is 1.
What is Web Farm ?
When we hosted our web Application on multiple web server under a load balancer
call the Web Farm. This is generally used for heavy load web application where
there are many user requests at a time. So When Web Application is hosted on
Different IIS Server over a load balancer, Load balancer is responsible for distribute
the load on different server.
How we can create a Virtual Directory on IIS ?
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1. Open IIS Manager
2. First of all Right Click on Default web sites > New > Virtual Directory .
3. Browse the Physical Path. Set the properties. Click on OK
What are the permission settings are available for Virtual Directory ?
Below are the lists of permission that can be set during virtual directory creation

Read
Run Scripts
Execute
Write
Browse

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