Sams Teach Yourself MCSE Windows NT Server 4 in 14 Days
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): David Schaer, et al
ISBN: 0672311283
Publication Date: 12/15/97

Virtual Servers in IIS

IIS also gives you the ability to host more than one Web site on the same computer. Additional Web sites are hosted on what are known as virtual servers. Each virtual server must have its own IP address and have that address registered with InterNIC. Next, you must bind that IP address to your network adapter card.

To set up a virtual server, click the Add button from the Directories property sheet (refer to Figure 11.38). This brings up the window you saw in Figure 11.39. Simply enter the IP address associated with this server and the directory that contains the information you want to publish, and click OK.

11.7.2. Optimizing Internet Information Server (IIS)

The inclusion of Internet Information Server with Windows NT Server makes establishing an intranet or an Internet presence easy. The introduction of this technology makes communication with all the employees of your organization easy and fun. With this additional capability comes the overhead and administrative responsibilities of managing an additional resource.

Optimizing your network traffic when a Web server is present can be viewed from two perspectives. The first is the efficiency of your Web server—how quickly does it respond to user requests? The second is what impact this additional server has on your overall network health.

The best way to maximize IIS performance is to have IIS fulfill requests from its cache rather than read from the physical drive. IIS maintains its own cache separately from that maintained by the Windows NT operating system. The cache can be configured by editing the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Services\InetInfo\Parameters\MemoryCacheSize. The range is 0 to 4GB. A setting of 0 disables caching. If the cache size is adjusted to a size greater than the amount of available physical memory, other processes on the server will be adversely affected.

When evaluating the effect of your IIS server on network traffic, you must determine the amount of bandwidth utilization. Bandwidth can be assessed both from the user’s standpoint (can your site be accessed?) and its effect on other network traffic.

If users complain of having difficulty accessing your server, then demand might be exceeding your available capacity. You can increase capacity by increasing the number of allowable connections using the Internet Information Server Manager. If this change does not solve the problem, then consider adding extra high-speed network adapters or mirror your server. The later option is helpful when you must deal with a low-speed WAN connection.

If your problem is one of other network processes being adversely affected by the traffic generated by IIS, you can decrease the percentage of bandwidth that is utilized using the Internet Information Server Manager. Changes made here affect all Internet services, not just the Web server. Decreasing the amount of allowable bandwidth, however, decreases the number of connections that can be made to your server. Another option is to place your IIS server on its own network segment.

To guarantee that your IIS gets its share of the processor, run only the processes necessary for the Web server to function. Do not expect your IIS server to fill other roles such as a file and print server or an application server.

11.8. Lab

This lab aids your learning by testing you on the information presented in this chapter as well as giving you exercises to hone your skills. Answers to the review questions can be found in Appendix B, “Answers to Review Questions.”

11.8.1. Review Questions

Question 1

DHCP requires that which protocol be enabled on your network?

A.  NWLink

B.  TCP/IP

C.  NetBEUI

D.  None of the above

Question 2

If your network is routed and you want to use DHCP to assign IP addresses to computers on all of your subnets, what must your routers support?

A.  They must be able to act as a DHCP relay agent.

B.  They must be able to route BOOTP packets.

C.  They must support IP Address Automatic Configuration.

D.  Nothing. This can be done with all routers.

Question 3

What utility would you use in Windows NT if you needed to know the current IP address of your computer?

A.  IPCONFIG

B.  ARP

C.  Network Control Panel

D.  NBTSTAT

Question 4

You are configuring multiple DHCP servers on a network and want to provide some level of redundancy. On each DHCP server, how many local IP addresses should be included in the scope?

A.  All the local addresses

B.  50 percent of the local available addresses

C.  75 percent of the local available addresses

D.  80 percent of the local available addresses

Question 5

You are setting up WINS replication across a slow WAN link. How should you configure the replication partners?

A.  As push partners

B.  To replicate only at certain times of the day

C.  As pull partners

D.  To replicate manually only

Question 6

Your company has been using an LMHOSTS file for NetBIOS name resolution, but wants to switch over to WINS. However, it wants to import the information from the LMHOSTS file into WINS. How would you do this?

A.  Import it as static mappings using WINS Manager.

B.  Manually enter the information into WINS.

C.  Convert the LMHOSTS file to a HOSTS file and set WINS to use DNS Lookup.

D.  Configure the WINS Server to use the LMHOSTS file for lookup after checking its own database.

Question 7

Your network also consists of non-WINS-enabled clients and you need them to resolve computer names to IP addresses. What two methods could you implement to accomplish this?

A.  Use a HOSTS file on each of the non-WINS enabled clients.

B.  Use an LMHOSTS file on each of the non-WINS enabled clients.

C.  Use DNS.

D.  Use a WINS proxy agent.

Question 8

What advantage does the hierarchical name structure implemented in DNS have over the flat name space used previously? (Choose two)

A.  More than one computer on the network can have the same host name.

B.  Each domain level is responsible for its own naming scheme.

C.  It is a much smaller and easier to handle database.

D.  The hierarchical name space provides some level of redundancy.