Q100119: [Connections] IIS (Internet Information Server)

The IIS Connection is a definition which tells a module, how to connect to and communicate with an installation of the Microsoft IIS webserver. Connections can either be entered directly into the parameter in the module, or can be managed through the global connections tool. If you will be using the same connection in different modules, it is much easier to manage the connection information by creating a single global connection. Whether you use a locally defined value in each IIS module, or use the global definitions for your IIS modules, the format of the connection value is the same for both.

If you use the global connection manager, you will see that as soon as you create a new entry, it will provide you a template for starting your IIS Connection. It would look like the example below.

Server=<servername>;Domain=<domainname>;Username=<username>;Password=<password>

Here we see that there are multiple values specified in this single parameter. Each value is a single name-value pair. You should notice that each of the name-value entries consists of a name on one side, followed by an equals sign (=), followed by the value, and finally terminated by a semicolon. Thus if we breakdown the example above, the list of name-value pairs might appear a little more legible if we look at them this way.

Server=<servername>;
Domain=<domainname>;
Username=<username>;
Password=<password>

Formatted this way, it is much easier to read. The name is on the left of the equals sign, while the value is on the right. Where each value is, you would edit it to use the value which is specific for your installation. In the template, the value on the right side would be replaced by the setting specific for the IIS Connection you are configuring. In the example below, we have configured what a real connection might look like.

Server=IntranetServer;Domain=MyCorp;Username=MyAdUsername;Password=MyAdPassword

Note that the value for servername should be any name that properly resolves to the machine you want to connect to. Or if needed, you can specify by IP address if the machine has a statically defined IP address that will not change. Thus IP addresses should not be used if the server is assigned a dynamic IP address via DHCP, as the IP address has the potential to change.