Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Administrators Companion

Site-level administration of IIS differs considerably in its tasks depending on which of the four IIS services you are dealing with: WWW, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP. As a result we defer a detailed discussion of the various tasks involved in administering different kinds of sites (virtual servers) until later in this chapter. (In other words, to learn how to administer WWW sites, go to the section Managing WWW Sites.) Nevertheless, there are a few general points concerning site-level administration that can be made here:

• The site-level properties for a particular Web or FTP site on IIS are almost identical to those at the server level (compare Figures 29-4 and 29-8), so virtually any administrative action you can perform on the WWW or FTP service at the server level can also be performed at the site level. Actions on the SMTP and NNTP services can be performed only at the site level, not the server level.
• Furthermore, site-level settings for a newly created Web or FTP site are inherited from the server-level master properties previously specified. You can, however, modify settings at the site level and have those settings override the settings configured at the server level.
• Another important point to consider is that site-level settings are inherited by all virtual and physical directories and files within the site (that is, within the virtual server). This is true whether you are considering WWW, FTP, SMTP, or NNTP sites.