IIS - Create App Pools, Virtual Directories and Web Sites C# .NET

The following is a little helper class for managing IIS sites using C#.

** Note

If you use .NET DirectoryServices and get COM exceptions
like this lovely one "0x80005000" (unknown error) when
referencing DirectoryEntry objects, simply install the following:

The IIS Metabase and IIS6 Configuration Compatibility is not
automatically installed when you enable the Web Server role
in Windows 2008 Server.  If you enable this feature, your old
DirectoryServices code in .NET should work like it used to.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics; 
using System.DirectoryServices; 

namespace MyCompany.IIS
{
    public static class IISController
    {

         #region Create Site
        public static bool CreateSite(string metabasePath, 
                                      string siteName, 
                                      string physicalPath,
                                      string ipAddress,
                                      string hostHeader,
                                      string dotNetVersion)
        {

            try
            {
                return CreateSite(metabasePath, 
                                  siteName, 
                                  physicalPath,
                                  ipAddress,
                                  hostHeader,
                                  dotNetVersion,
                                  null,
                                  null);
            }
            catch { throw; }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Create Site
        public static bool CreateSite(string metabasePath, 
                                      string siteName, 
                                      string physicalPath,
                                      string ipAddress,
                                      string hostHeader,
                                      string dotNetVersion,
                                      string windowsUserName,
                                      string windowsUserPassword)
       {
           int siteID = -1;
           object[] hosts = new object[2];
           string appPoolID = "";
           string newMetaBasePath = "";

            try
            {

                   hostHeader = hostHeader.Replace("www.",""); 

                   hosts[0] = ipAddress + ":80:" + hostHeader;
                   hosts[1] = ipAddress + ":80:" + "www." + hostHeader;

                  siteID = GetNextAvailableSiteID(metabasePath);

                  appPoolID = CreateAppPool(metabasePath + "/AppPools", hostHeader);

                  CreateIISSite(metabasePath, siteID.ToString(), siteName, physicalPath, appPoolID,hosts);

                  newMetaBasePath = metabasePath + "/" + siteID.ToString() + "/Root";

                  if ((windowsUserName != null) && (windowsUserPassword != null))
                  {
                      if ((windowsUserName.Trim().Length > 0) && (windowsUserPassword.Trim().Length > 0))
                      {
                          SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousUserName", windowsUserName.Trim());
                          SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousUserPass", windowsUserPassword.Trim());
                          SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousPasswordSync", true);
                      }
                  }

                  RegisterASPNETApplicationVersion("W3SVC/" + siteID + "/Root", dotNetVersion);
 
                  return true;
            }
            catch { throw; }
       }
       #endregion

       #region Create IIS Site
       private static void CreateIISSite(string metabasePath, 
                                         string siteID,
                                         string siteName, 
                                         string physicalPath,
                                         string appPoolID,
                                         object[] hosts)
        {
            //  metabasePath is of the form "IIS://<servername>/<service>"
            //  for example "IIS://localhost/W3SVC" 
            //  siteID is of the form "<number>", for example "555"
            //  siteName is of the form "<name>", for example, "My New Site"
            //  physicalPath is of the form "<drive>:\<path>", for example, "C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot"
         
            try
            {
                DirectoryEntry service = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);
                string className = service.SchemaClassName.ToString();

                if (!className.EndsWith("Service")) { return; }
             
                    DirectoryEntries sites = service.Children;
                    DirectoryEntry newSite = sites.Add(siteID, (className.Replace("Service", "Server")));
                    newSite.Properties["ServerComment"][0] = siteName;
                    newSite.Properties["ServerBindings"].Value = hosts;
                    newSite.Invoke("Put", "ServerAutoStart", 1);
                    newSite.Invoke("Put", "ServerSize", 1);
                    newSite.CommitChanges();

                    DirectoryEntry siteVDir;
                    siteVDir = newSite.Children.Add("Root", "IIsWebVirtualDir");
                    siteVDir.Properties["Path"][0] = physicalPath;
                    siteVDir.Properties["EnableDefaultDoc"][0] = true;
                    siteVDir.Properties["DefaultDoc"].Value = "default.aspx";
                    siteVDir.Properties["AppIsolated"][0] = 2;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AccessRead"][0] = true;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AccessWrite"][0] = false;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AccessScript"][0] = true;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AccessFlags"].Value = 513;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AppRoot"][0] = @"/LM/W3SVC/" + siteID.ToString() + "/Root";
                    siteVDir.Properties["AppPoolId"].Value = appPoolID;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AuthNTLM"][0] = true;
                    siteVDir.Properties["AuthAnonymous"][0] = true;
                    siteVDir.CommitChanges();
       
            }
            catch { throw; }
        }
       #endregion


        #region Register ASPNET Application Version
        private static void RegisterASPNETApplicationVersion(string applicationMetaPath,
                                                             string dotNetVersion)
        {
            string aspnet = "";

            try
            {

                dotNetVersion = dotNetVersion.Replace("v", "");

                aspnet = string.Format(@"{0}\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v{1}\aspnet_regiis.exe",
                                              Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("windir"),
                                              dotNetVersion);

                ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(aspnet);

                startInfo.Arguments = string.Format("-sn \"{0}\"", applicationMetaPath);
                startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
                startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
                startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

                Process process = new Process();
                process.StartInfo = startInfo;
                process.Start();
                process.WaitForExit();
                process.Dispose();

            }
            catch  { throw; }

        }
       #endregion


     
        #region Create Virtual Directory
        public static bool CreateVirtualDirectory(string metabasePath,
                                                  string virtualDirectoryName,
                                                   string physicalPath)
        {
            //  metabasePath is of the form "IIS://<servername>/<service>/<siteID>/Root[/<vdir>]"
            //    for example "IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/Root" 
            //  vDirName is of the form "<name>", for example, "MyNewVDir"
            //  physicalPath is of the form "<drive>:\<path>", for example, "C:\Inetpub\Wwwroot"
 

            try
            {
                DirectoryEntry site = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);
                string className = site.SchemaClassName.ToString();

                if ((className.EndsWith("Server")) || (className.EndsWith("VirtualDir")))
                {
                    DirectoryEntries vdirs = site.Children;
                    DirectoryEntry newVDir = vdirs.Add(virtualDirectoryName,
                                   (className.Replace("Service", "VirtualDir")));
                    newVDir.Properties["Path"][0] = physicalPath;
                    newVDir.Properties["AccessScript"][0] = true;
                    // These properties are necessary for an application to be created.
                    newVDir.Properties["AppFriendlyName"][0] = virtualDirectoryName;
                    newVDir.Properties["AppIsolated"][0] = "1";
                    newVDir.Properties["AppRoot"][0] = "/LM" + 
                   metabasePath.Substring(metabasePath.IndexOf("/", ("IIS://".Length)));

                    newVDir.CommitChanges();

                    return true;
                }
                
                return false;

            }
            catch { throw; }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Create App Pool
        public static string CreateAppPool(string metabasePath, string appPoolName)
        {
 
            try
            {
                if (!metabasePath.EndsWith("/W3SVC/AppPools"))
                {
                    throw new Exception("metaBasePath " + metabasePath
                         + " is invalid.  It must end with W3SVC/AppPools");
                }
             
                    DirectoryEntry newPool;
                    DirectoryEntry appPools = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);

                    foreach(DirectoryEntry entry in appPools.Children)
                    {

                        if (entry.Name.ToLower() == appPoolName.ToLower())
                        { 
                            return entry.Name;
                        }
                      
                    }

                    newPool = appPools.Children.Add(appPoolName, "IIsApplicationPool");

                    newPool.CommitChanges();

                    newPool = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath + "/" + appPoolName);

                    newPool.Properties["PeriodicRestartMemory"].Value = "0";
                    newPool.Properties["PeriodicRestartPrivateMemory"].Value = "0";

                    newPool.CommitChanges();
 
                    return appPoolName; 
            }
            catch { throw; }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Set Single Property
        public static bool SetSingleProperty(string metabasePath, 
                                             string propertyName,
                                             object newValue)
        {
            //  metabasePath is of the form "IIS://<servername>/<path>"
            //    for example "IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1" 
            //  propertyName is of the form "<propertyName>", for example "ServerBindings"
            //  value is of the form "<intStringOrBool>", for example, ":80:"
 

            try
            {
                DirectoryEntry path = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);
                 
           
                    path.Properties[propertyName][0] = newValue;
                    path.CommitChanges();
                    return true;
            
            }
            catch { throw; }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Get Next Available Site ID
        public static int GetNextAvailableSiteID(string metabasePath)
        {
            int siteID = 101;

           try
           {
                 DirectoryEntry root = new DirectoryEntry(metabasePath);
                 
 
                   foreach(DirectoryEntry e in root.Children) 
                   {
                      if(e.SchemaClassName == "IIsWebServer")
                      {
                           int ID = Convert.ToInt32(e.Name);

                           if(ID >= siteID)
                           {
                              siteID = ID+1;
                           }
                     }
                 }
           }
           catch { throw; }
           return siteID;
        }
       #endregion

    }
}

Hi Robbe,

I came across your code to create web sites in IIS programatically and I had a couple of questions that I hoped you could answer. 

1. The first parameter in the constructor is the metabasePath.  Can you give me an example of what this would look like?  I'm not sure if it's an actual file path or a folder path.

2. We have to set up our web sites to run under a specific identity.  Is this what the following lines of code would do so that I'd just change the windowsUserName/Password with what ours run under? 

if ((windowsUserName != null) && (windowsUserPassword != null))

if ((windowsUserName.Trim().Length > 0) && (windowsUserPassword.Trim().Length > 0))

SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousUserName", windowsUserName.Trim());

SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousUserPass", windowsUserPassword.Trim());

SetSingleProperty(newMetaBasePath, "AnonymousPasswordSync", true);

Hi Robbe,

I came across your code to register asp.net with my IIS web server and I had a question that I hoped you could answer.

The first parameter in the RegisterASPNETApplicationVersion function is the ApplicationMetabasePath.  Can you give me an example of what this would look like? 

Thanks-
sara