Learn about IIS 7.0 modular Web servers

In this article, we will learn about the modular Web server of IIS 7.0. We know that IIS 7.0 divides Web servers into a lightweight server core and can insert more than 40 functional modules into this core. These modules (such as StaticFileModule that allows downloading static Web content, or WindowsAuthModule that supports integrated NTLM authentication) can be separately installed on the server to provide the specific functions you need.

These modules can be fully detached from the server at any time, or they are specifically disabled for specific applications that do not require them. This will help server administrators quickly deploy small servers, greatly reduce the possibility of attacks, and greatly improve performance by executing only the required code.

Componentized architecture is a key attribute of IIS 7.0. It can reduce security risks and minimize the need to install patches.

It also supports specialized server deployment. This deployment can combine the IIS feature and custom components to optimize specific server roles in the application topology. For example, reverse proxy and cache server, HTTP Server Load balancer, or SSL and secure sentinel server.

All server functions attached to IIS 7.0 are based on the new public extensible API. As a developer, you can use your own functions to replace any existing server functions, or you can build new modules to add them to the IIS 7.0 feature set. Do you want to replace the built-in authentication mechanism with a custom authentication module or provide a new form of response compression? Continue.

The new extensible API is a fundamental improvement to the previous ISAPI extensible model, allowing you to more flexibly and easily enhance servers. Almost every aspect of the server (from the core server to configuration, management, and diagnosis) provides scalability, allowing you to expand and cut servers as needed.

We will explain how to use the modular Web server of IIS 7.0.