20.April.2005 Update:  IIS PM Shai Kariv informed me that the managed configuration API will allow for interaction against remote machines on the network.  Previously I had stated that only WMI made this possible programmatically.  Of course this is disabled by default.  To enable it run aspnet_regiis -config+ on the remote machine to enable remote access to configuration.

Today the fact that IIS 7 centers around configuration files was driven home.  We had opportunity to learn about and experiment with the new IIS Admin tool and the WMI scripting interfaces.  By the end of the day I was asking questions about the different features each of the administrative tools provides.  I still have much to learn, but I do have a bit to begin thinking over.  Here are the highlights.

IIS Admin Tool has been completely redesigned and architected.  At this point the classic tree view we are used to does not even exist.  I and others are asking that it be brought back for rapid navigation of servers, sites and applications.  There is a strong move in the tool toward specific administration roles.  For those that focus on a specific area in the configuration hierarchy you will find that the tool nicely limits your interaction with the server to appropriate areas.  To further enhance this limited administration there is a new delegated security model.  This is probably my favorite new feature of the tool.  My second favorite feature is the ability to administer sites remotely over the Internet.  Of course it can use SSL to keep the data secure and also requires credentials to administer a remote machine.  I think the combination of delegated security and remote administration will make this tool popular for hosters and very helpful for application developers as well.  Developers are simply going to love IIS 7 because they finally will have the ability to configure the setting they need without having to request them from an administrator.  Admins, don't worry, developers will not have more access than they should not.

A few more take aways on the IIS Admin Tool:

• It is fully extensible.  Microsoft uses the public extensibility scheme themselves for the tools they have built in.
• New or updated modules are synced up with the admin tool when it connects to the server.
• Creating new modules for your custom configuration sections is relatively painless.  I imagine it will get even better be the time we see the first beta.

WMI and Scripting have been enhanced.  The WMI programming model has been cleaned up to make it easier to use and consistent between the different objects that are exposed for IIS.  Having never worked with WMI I discovered a whole world of automation that I have been missing out on.  I look forward to working more with WMI now and into the future with IIS 7.0.  WMI turns out to be the only programmable interface that works against remote servers on a network.  The .NET managed APIs for configuration are great against a local machine, but only WMI will let you hit a remote machine from code.  I asked around and learned that WMI uses traditional COM and DCOM to remote the calls to the remote machines.  Apparently both WMI and the GUI Admin Tool ultimately use the .NET configuration API to get their work done.

Some additional new features offered up through WMI include:

• Enumeration of Application Domains and Worker Processes
• Access to custom configuration sections (using new tools to automatically update the required MOF)

At the end of the day I had opportunity to continue on my soap box with the request to de-couple IIS from the operating system.  This time I made the request to Scott Guthrie.  I told him that I am going to keep requesting it right on up to Steve Balmer.  I suppose I could take it Bill Gates, but I probably should reserve any requests to Bill for things of slightly more importance.  Not that I will ever have an audience with Steve or Bill (notice the first name basis I ave with people I don't know), but it is fun to talk about.  Please join in this request if you also would like to see IIS removed from the Operating System beginning with IIS 7.0.  Perhaps if we make enough noise about we can get the right people to respond.  Anyone want to start a new site for the De-coupling campaign?  Perhaps something like decoupleiis.com (it's available at the moment).

Speaking of new domains, I registered IISSeven.com last night.  I plan to dump information about IIS 7.0 there.  To begin with I will aggregate my IIS 7.0 blog category and start linking to IIS team member blogs as well.  I guess I had better do some work tomorrow getting those team blog URL's.