Webmaster Forum / ASP / General ASP Topics / July 2009

Here is the question followed by the background: (I am not an IIS admin
expert or developer, my only experience is creating web applications that run
on IIS 6).

Can a web service configured to run as web application under IIS 7 also run
as a web service under IIS 6 simply by copying the asmx pages and dlls?  The
webconfig files will be different but the asmx pages and dll’s are the same.

I have two customers that use identical web applications and windows
applications that use a web service for all its CRUD needs from SQL Server
2000.  Both have a server for the web application and a different server
which hosts the web service and SQL Server.  Both servers run IIS 6.

My previous development machine ran XP, SQL Server 2000, VS Studio 2003 and
also IIS 6 (so these were 1.1 .NetFramework applications).  Deploying changes
to the windows application is simply building an install file (.msi) with the
appropriate AppConfig settings.  Deploying the web application is simply
copying pages to a folder that is configured as a .Net web application and
the appropriate dll files to that folder’s bin folder.  Deploying changes to
the web service is simply copying the .asmx files and the appropriate dll’s
to its bin folder.  Could not be easier.

Now one customer wants to move to Windows 2008 server which will be running
IIS7 and SQL Server 2008.  

I also have ported my entire IDE over to a Vista machine and upgraded all
the applications to  3.5 Framework including the web services.  When I
installed IIS7 on the Vista machine, I included the IIS 6 compatibility
(although if the answer to my question is yes, then I do not need it).  This
machines also runs SQL Server 2008.  All  applications work  as before.  
Other than the update to the 3.5 Framework, the only differences are IIS 7
and SQL Server 2008.  

The other customer will remain with IIS 6 but will use the 3.5 versions of
the applications and stay with SQL Server 2000.  If the answer to my question
is no, then do I need to configure a web site using IIS 6 management console
on the Vista machine and create a web application there also?  If so, how
since there is no way to add a website using that IIS 6 console.  All I see
is the computer name, a folder called FTP Sites with a virtual folder under
it called Default FTP Site.  There is no task that allows me to add a website
using that management console.  So I am not sure why it is even there.

WRL