Problems with IIS7 support

[adi]

Hi,

We have problems supporting IIS7 in our installer. After some investigation I think that I have found several bugs in IIS7 support...

Test system information:
- InstallAware 9.09
- Windows 2008 R2 with IIS 7.5 (causing problems)
- Windows 2003 with IIS 6 - where the installer works fine
- Basis for the tests - "Creating IIS Websites and Virtual Folders" sample project

1. Possible BUG no 1: Cannot create a Virtual Directory in the root of a Web Site if the Web Site contains some applications.

Example command:

Code: Select all

Create Virtual Folder "TestFolder" in IIS Site #1, pointing to physical location c:\temp


where:

• 1 - is the proper identifier of the "Default Web Site"
• c:\temp folder exists and has all the necessary rights.

Example IIS structure configuration 1:

• Default Web Site

Result 1:

• Default Web Site
• TestFolder

Correct, folder created where it was intended.

Example IIS structure configuration 2:

• Default Web Site
• Application1
• Application2

Result:

• Default Web Site
• Application1
• Application2
• TestFolder

WRONG. Folder created under some already existing application! This can mess up the whole system!

I consider this as a bug. Few things that I've noticed:

• I can still create Virtual Directories in the root of the Web Site using the IIS management console
• This doesn't happen when creating applications, only Virtual Directories are acting like this
• Always the last Application is chosen to be a parent of the newly created Virtual Directory

2. Possible BUG no 2: Virtual Directory cannot be deleted during uninstallation.
If the bug no 1 occurs, the Virtual Directory that was just created is never deleted during the uninstallation.

3. Possible BUG no 3: Setting the default document doesn't work.
If the bug no 1 occurs, the default documents section defined in "Create Virtual Directory" command is ignored.

virtualfolderdocuments.png (17.46 KiB) Viewed 16234 times

Illustration to bugs 1-3

bug123.png (49.82 KiB) Viewed 16234 times

4. Possible BUG no 4: Reading IIS Properties doesn't work even if the IIS6 Metabase Compatibility is installed
I'm using the IIS Metabase to get the root folder of a given Web Site. It works perfectly fine on IIS6. I know that in IIS7 the Metabase is gone, but after installing the IIS6 Metabase Compatibility Role Service everything should work fine. It's not.

Example command:

Code: Select all

Get IIS Site Property "AppRoot" into variable WEBSITE_ROOT_PATH from site #1/


Result: some strange characters, like "^%^". Tested on ENG and DE version of the operating system with similar results.

Illustration to bug 4

bug4.png (3.94 KiB) Viewed 16234 times

Am I doing something wrong here? Or I have just found 4 bugs? This is really a blocking point for my company since we cannot deliver our product to our customers using Windows 2008 (R2).

Best regards,
adi

[MichaelNesmith]

Thanks a lot for the well qualified report. It seems you've found some issues with IIS 7. I'll be reproducing and escalating to R&D.

It seems the core issue is to have a custom application installed first on the target system. Could you please provide step by step instructions of that also - so we have no issues reproducing the bug at our end?

Thanks!

[adi]

Hello,

It's easy to reproduce bugs no 1-3:

1. Take a Windows Server 2008 (R2)
2. Choose a Web Site that has at least one application
3. Execute the command:

Code: Select all

Create Virtual Folder "TestFolder" in IIS Site #1, pointing to physical location c:\temp


The "TestFolder" virtual directory will be created in the wrong place. That's where all the problems start.


About issue no 4:
1. Take a Windows Server 2008 (R2)
2. Install the IIS Metabase Compatibility Role Service
3. Try to get some IIS setting using the "Get IIS Site Property".
I have tried it with the "AppRoot" and "Path" properties. Both don't work for me.

Best regards,
adi

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Adi,

We have a fix for this issue, ready for you to test.

Again, thanks for a very well qualified report that made it easier for us to find the issue.

Please extract the attached archive onto:
C:\Program Files\InstallAware\InstallAware 9 R2\interop (typical installation path)

Be sure to backup the miastub.exe file inside that folder, as the archive extraction will overwrite that file.

Fully rebuild your project and please confirm that the fix is working for you.

Once you have confirmed this fix, we will take this fix live for all our licensed customers. At that point, just regenerate and reinstall your license for the fix to be officially installed.

Also, if you have the time to look into them, we'd appreciate your feedback on these two topics as well:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5735
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5721

Again, many thanks for helping make InstallAware better!

[adi]

Hello,

Thank you for such a quick fix. I have tested your patch and it works!
1. Virtual directory is now installed in the correct location
2. The "Documents" tab is set up correctly
3. The folder is removed during the uninstallation.

The only thing that still remains broken is the "Get IIS Property" issue. I'm still getting some strange results.

The simplest scenario possible - get the root folder of the web site:

Code: Select all

Get IIS Folder Property "Path" into variable WEBSITE_ROOT_PATH from site #1/
MessageBox: Website Root Path, $WEBSITE_ROOT_PATH$
Terminate Installation


1. On Windows 2003 (IIS6):

Result on Windows 2003 (IIS6)

result2003.png (2.5 KiB) Viewed 16210 times

2. On Windows 2008 English (IIS7) with IIS6 Metabase Compatibility:

Result on Windows 2008 (IIS7) with IIS6 Metabase Compatibility

result2008withIISCompatibility.png (4.83 KiB) Viewed 16210 times

3. On Windows 2008 R2 German (IIS 7.5) with IIS6 Metabase Compatibility:

Result on Windows 2008 R2 (IIS7) with IIS6 Metabase Compatibility

result2008r2withIISCompatibility.png (4.86 KiB) Viewed 16210 times

4. On Windows 2008 R2 English (IIS7.5) without IIS6 Metabase Compatibility:
Attachment limit exceeded

As you can see I'm getting the same results no matter if the IIS6 Metabase Compatibility is installed or not.
The command works properly on IIS6. So something must be wrong with IIS7/7.5.

Best regards,
adi

[adi]

The last attachment:

Windows 2008 R2 with IIS6 Compatibility

result2008withIISCompatibility.png (4.83 KiB) Viewed 16210 times

[MichaelNesmith]

The fix is live - just regenerate and reinstall your license, and rebuild your setups to validate.

(If you aren't already running on the V9 R2 trial, upgrade to the V9 R2 trial first)

We should have progress on Get/Set Property soon also.

Thanks again for all the help!

[adi]

The fix is live - just regenerate and reinstall your license, and rebuild your setups to validate.

We should have progress on Get/Set Property soon also.

Hello,

Did you do any progress in this area? Will the problem be fixed at all?

Best regards,
adi

[CFConner]

When you said the changes were "live" - did you mean you already updated the Trial version of the software - or do we download the zip file above in the previous post? I'm also waiting to hear about the get / set properties.

Thanks!

=-Chris

[mills]

That means it should be checked in to the downloadable (trial) version.

[Niclas]

We are experiencing similar problems using IA v10 (both trial and registered versions).
In our case, the GET IIS Site Property returns totally wrong data for the "Path" property.

Does anyone have a solution to the Get IIS Site property bug in IIS7/7.5?

Is there a hotfox or a workaround (keeping the setup compatible with the requirements for MS Certified for Windows 2008 Server).

[lbertoldi]

Same problem here, four months later.
I am also using version 10.
Any news?
Thanks

[giaviv]

Dear InstalAware users,

There are some know issues working with IIS7 in InstallAware. They are all being worked on, and as a temporary workaround we recommend using the IIS7 command line tools - APPCMD (you can invoke it by calling Run Program).
We apologize for the inconvenience and we will let you know once the issue are fixed.

[lbertoldi]

Thanks for the answer, even if it is quite disappointing. 10 months to fix this issue looks like a long time to me.
Your advice is to run appcmd.exe to output the path on a text file and then read it back? Or you have a better alternative?

[giaviv]

Currently, the main bug that still exists is the Get IIS7 Property.
Please regenerate and reinstall your license to fix most of the existing bugs.

As per your question, here is an example project that reads the TCP port of an IIS 7 website using APPCMD:
http://www.installaware.com/forum/downl ... php?id=327