What makes good web hosting? When someone searches for the best web host or best web hosting, what are they looking for? (Psst, just a quick reminder, content on this site may include affiliate links to help support costs of operating this blog. You can read our full disclosure here.) First though, who am I […]
Cloud Server Performance Metrics
It’s hard to really know what you get when buying cloud services today. Depending on the vendor they might sell their services with set amounts of “cores”, or “compute units”, or “vCPUs”. Storage might be spinning disks in speeds ranging from 7,200 RPM to 15,000 RPM or the storage might be newer solid state drives […]
Hosting, Linux, performance, WindowsBasic IIS Performance Statistics
There are some neat counters available in Windows Performance Monitor for showing some IIS (Internet Information Server) statistics. My three favorites are: Current Anonymous Users: This counter shows the number of current anonymous HTTP connections. Since most web sites serve content to anonymous users, it’s the one that seems to make the most sense to […]
Hosting, IIS, performance, System Administration, WindowsTurn Off IE Enhanced Security Configuration
The Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration (IE ESC) that is turned on by default on Windows Server drives me crazy. Being unable to download files, and constantly being prompted to add URLs to be viewed, is super-annoying. So, my SOP now is to disable that setting for Administrative users on servers (note: these are generally […]
System Administration, tip, WindowsHandler "PHP5x_via_FastCGI" has a bad module "FastCgiModule" in its module list
Below is a guest post by Desiree at OrcsWeb with an IIS/PHP/CGI troubleshooting tip: I installed WordPress for one of our managed clients recently, and what should have been a simple install, turned into quite a bit of troubleshooting. The client was running Windows Server and using IIS for their site hosting. Before starting the […]
ASP.NET, tip, Troubleshooting, WindowsPerforming Offline installations with WPI Command line tool
Performing application installs on a server that does not have internet connectivity used to be a difficult thing to do. You had to locate and download not only the main application, but any dependencies that would be needed to complete the install. Without an easy way to determine these dependencies, you could be stuck in […]
IIS, OrcsWeb, System Administration, tip, WindowsSetting up SSL in IIS7
Obtaining an SSL certificate for your website is a task that every IIS administrator will have to perform at some point in time. This can be a confusing process the first time you have to do this. IIS7 has changed the way that certificates are requested. In the IIS6 days, you requested a certificate from […]
Hosting, IIS, OrcsWeb, Windows, windows serverImplementing Application Initialization on IIS 7.5
Another great post by Terri over at OrcsWeb that I think you’ll find beneficial. Here’s a brief intro and a link to the full post… Microsoft has released a new module for IIS 7.5 which provides the ability to ‘warm-up’ an application and provide a ‘pretty’ page to the end-user until the application is fully […]
ASP.NET, Hosting, IIS, OrcsWeb, SQL/Databases, System Administration, tip, WindowsMagically Sync Machine Key for All Nodes in a Web Farm
Okay, well, it isn’t really magic – not even the Apple type – but it is pretty cool. Below is a post by OrcsWeb’s Jeff Graves providing a VERY handy script that can be used to instantly synchronize the machine key values for all ASP.NET versions on multiple Windows Server nodes in a web farm. […]
ASP.NET, Hosting, IIS, OrcsWeb, System Administration, web farm, WindowsDiagnosing Windows/Web Application Issues
Here’s a great video post over on Channel9 that you may find useful if you ever have to troubleshoot application issues. You can’t troubleshoot a problem effectively until you first know what the problem is. When applications encounter stability or performance issues in the production environment, obtaining an accurate problem definition is a key first-step […]
ASP.NET, Hosting, Windows