How to publish PHP website On IIS

One of most popular development platforms on the web is PHP which powers many popular applications and sites such as Facebook, WordPress and Joomla. While most of these systems are ‘designed’ to be used on a Linux system running the Apache Web Server, we can deploy PHP applications via IIS 7 on our Windows Server 2008 system as well..

In order for Windows to run PHP code, the PHP binary files need to be copied to your system. No installation is required, however some configuration must be done in order for it to properly run. The first step is to download the PHP Windows Binaries and extract them (i.e. ‘C:PHP’). For IIS 7, the non thread safe binaries should be used.

Prerequisite downloads

Download PHP Windows Binaries (non thread safe)

Download IIS 7 Administration Pack

Download PHP Hotfix for IIS 7 FastCGI (x86 / x64)

 Copy the ‘php.ini-production’ file from the extracted files paste it into the Windows directory. In the Windows directory, rename this file to ‘php.ini’.

 

Open the ‘php.ini’ file in Notepad and configure it as needed. Out of the box, the production configuration we copied is preconfigured for what the PHP Team feels is good for a production server. There are a few changes you will need to make to configure PHP for your IIS 7 system:

• Uncomment and set the key, cgi.force_redirect = 0
• Uncomment the key, fastcgi.impersonate = 1
• Uncomment and set the key, extension_dir to the ‘ext’ folder in the path PHP was extracted to (i.e. ‘C:PHPext’).
• Set the key, date.timezone to the time zone of your server (the URL on the line above this key lists the accepted values).

At this point, your Windows system can run PHP scripts from the command line using the ‘php.exe’ tool.

Configuring IIS 7 to Run FastCGI

Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 includes the FastCGI framework as part of the installation package. To make sure it is enabled in your IIS 7 installation, check the Role Services under Server Manager > Roles > Web Server.

Make sure the “CGI” option is installed under the “Application Development” section. If it is not, enable this feature and update your IIS 7 installation.

Once IIS is set, install the IIS 7 Administration Pack. If you do not use the “Typical” setup then make sure you have the “FastCGI” option set to install. This package installs the FastCGI configuration interface inside the IIS Manager.

Configuring IIS to Run PHP via FastCGI

Once IIS 7 is setup with all the required features, we just need to configure it to run PHP. First, we configure FastCGI to work with PHP under the “FastCGI Settings” option (this feature is installed as part of the IIS 7 Administration Pack).

 In the FastCGI Settings screen, add an application.

Set the path to the ‘php-cgi.exe’ executable located in the folder where you extracted the PHP Windows binaries. Additionally, change the “InstanceMaxRequests” to a value higher than the default (i.e. 5000). Under the “EnvironmentVariables” setting, click the ellipses button to configure additional options.

Add a new variable named “PHP_MAX_REQUESTS” and set the value to the same amount as the “InstanceMaxRequests” setting above.

Apply all settings until you get back to the primary IIS Manager screen.

Next, we have to map how PHP scripts are executed by IIS which is configured in “Handler Mappings”.

In the Handler Mappings, add a new module mapping.

Set the module’s request path to PHP files (*.php) with the module interface “FastCgiModule”. Set the executable to the same file as what was configured in the FastCGI settings above. Assign a friendly name to this mapping, such as PHP, and click Ok.

When you get the confirmation prompt, answer “Yes” to confirm you want PHP to run as a FastCGI application.

Apply all your changes, close and restart IIS to make sure the new settings take effect.

Once this is done, there is a Microsoft hotfix available (a link is available in the links section) which addresses some issues with PHP when running under IIS 7. These should be installed on your web server to ensure PHP functions properly through FastCGI.

Testing PHP

At this point, your server is ready to go, but just to be sure we can confirm your PHP setup through IIS pretty easily. Create a text file in the directory ‘C:Inetpubwwwroot’ named ‘phpinfo.php’ which simply contains the line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Finally, browse to the address: ‘http://localhost/phpinfo.php’ on your server and you should see the PHP information page. If the page loads successfully, PHP is now up and running on your machine.

Conclusion

Once you have PHP up and running on your Windows system, you can take advantage of the multitude of PHP based applications available as well as develop and deploy your own.

 Thanks

R.karthikeyan

TFS Administration Guide

Microsoft released an administration guide for TFS 2010 Administration Guide for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server. This is a compiled help file (.chm) version of the administration guide for Team Foundation Server 2010.

Similarly you can also download the Team Foundation Installation Guide 2010 includes instruction for installing Team Foundation Server and Team Foundation Build Services

Thanks

R.karthikeyan

How to change a domain controller's IP address

As a critical part of your IT infrastructure, domain controllers (DC) should be assigned a static IP address so that they can be reliably discovered across the network. Sometimes it’s necessary to change the IP address assigned to a DC, for instance when there’s a change of IP addressing scheme on the local subnet, and this process can cause some concern for administrators due to the critical nature of DCs. However, assuming the DC is not hosting any other roles, changing the IP address shouldn’t pose any serious difficulties.

Change the IP address

In this example, I’m going to change the IP address of a Windows Server 2012 DC. The server is additionally configured as the domain’s only DNS server.

1. Open a command prompt by right-clicking the PowerShell icon on the desktop Task Bar and select Run as Administrator.
2. Run DCDIAG and make sure the DC passes all the tests. If any problems are identified, they should be resolved before proceeding any further.
3. Right-click the network icon in the bottom right of the Task Bar and select Open Network and Sharing Center from the menu.
4. In the Network and Sharing Center, click Change adapter settings.
5. On the Network Connections screen, right-click the network adapter for which you want to change the IP address and select Properties from the menu.
6. In the Ethernet Properties dialog box, scroll down the list and double-click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
7. In the TCP/IPv4 dialog box, change the IP address (and subnet mask if required). In this example I will also change the primary DNS server entry to the DC’s new static IP address, as the DC is also the only DNS server in the domain. Click OK to continue.
8. Click OK in the Ethernet Properties dialog box and then close the Network and Sharing Center.

Register the domain controller's new IP address

Now the IP address has been changed, we need to empty the local DNS cache and register the DC’s new IP address in DNS.

1. In the PowerShell box, run ipconfig /flushdns to remove any cached DNS entries created by the local DNS resolver.
2. Run ipconfig /registerdns to ensure the new IP address is registered by the DNS server.
3. Run dcdiag /fix to update Service Principal Name (SPN) records and check that all the tests are passed successfully.

DHCP settings will need to be changed if the DC is also a DNS server to make sure domain members pick up the DNS server’s new IP address. Don’t forget that you’ll either need to clear the local DNS cache on all member servers and clients joined to the domain or reboot them so that they resolve the new IP address to locate the DC.
If you have a distributed DNS infrastructure, you may need to wait for DNS information to replicate or force a replication. If present, subnet information in AD Sites and Services should be updated if the subnet addressing scheme is also modified. As with any major change you make to your production servers, you should test the procedure in a preproduction environment using servers with the same configuration as your production systems.

Thanks
R.karthikeyan