IIS 7 Command Line Tool

AppCmd.exe IIS 7 command-line tool used to perform common IIS administrative tasks such as creating new sites, stopping/starting services, and viewing status of the site.

Usage

appcmd (command) (object-type) <identifier> </parameter1:value1 ...>

In order to run AppCmd.exe, you will either need to change directory into %windir%\system32\inetsrv\ or add it to your PATH variable. On a Windows 2008 server with a default installation, AppCmd.exe is located in C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv.

Supported object types:

SITE Administration of virtual sites
APP Administration of applications
VDIR Administration of virtual directories
APPPOOL Administration of application pools
CONFIG Administration of general configuration sections
WP Administration of worker processes
REQUEST Administration of HTTP requests
MODULE Administration of server modules
BACKUP Administration of server configuration backups
TRACE Working with failed request trace logs

General parameters:

/?               Display context-sensitive help message.

/text<:value>    Generate output in text format (default).
                 /text:* shows all object properties in detail view.
                 /text:<attribute> shows the value of the specified
                 attribute for each object.

/xml             Generate output in XML format.
                 Use this to produce output that can be sent to another
                 command running in /in mode.

/in or -         Read and operate on XML input from standard input.
                 Use this to operate on input produced by another
                 command running in /xml mode.

/config<:*>      Show configuration for displayed objects.
                 /config:* also includes inherited configuration.

/metadata        Show configuration metadata when displaying configuration.

/commit          Set config path where configuration changes are saved.
                 Can specify either a specific configuration path, "site",
                 "app", "parent", or "url" to save to the appropriate portion
                 of the path being edited by the command, "apphost", "webroot",
                 or "machine" for the corresponding configuration level.

/debug           Show debugging information for command execution.

Use ! to escape parameters that have same names as the general parameters, like /!debug:value to set a config property named debug.

Prerequisites (as per Windows 2012 Core)

Install IIS (powershell):

install-windowsfeature web-server

Install IIS remote management (this renders the rest quite moot):

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Mgmt-Service
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WebManagement\Server -Name EnableRemoteManagement -Value 1
Net Stop WMSVC
Net Start WMSVC
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Allow Web Management" dir=in action=allow service="WMSVC"

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:IIS-ASPNET45 /all

dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WAS-WindowsActivationService /all
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WAS-ProcessModel /all
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WAS-NetFxEnvironment /all
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WAS-ConfigurationAPI /all
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WCF-HTTP-Activation /all
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:WCF-HTTP-Activation45 /all

Install telnet client (always handy for debug):

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:TelnetClient

Open firewall ports (use when needed):

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WebPort" dir=in protocol=TCP localport=8080 action=allow

Examples

List

List all sites:

appcmd list sites

List started sites:

appcmd list sites /state:started

List stopped sites:

appcmd list sites /state:stopped

List unknown sites:

appcmd list sites /state:stopped

Start and Stop

Start a site:

appcmd start sites "Default Web Site"

Stop a site:

appcmd stop sites "Default Web Site"

Add

appcmd add site /name:mywebsite /id:99 /bindings:http/*:81 /physicalPath:C:\mywebsite

Configuration

List all backup configurations:

appcmd list backup

Show site configuration:

appcmd list site "Default Web Site" /config

List site properties to set:

appcmd set site "Default Web Site" -?

Set a property:

appcmd set site "Default Web Site" -propertyName:"Some Value"

E.g. change binding:

appcmd set site "Default Web Site" -bindings:"http://*:8888"

Application Pools:

Add:

appcmd add apppool /name:"My App Pool" /managedRuntimeVersion:v4.0 /managedPipelineMode:Classic
appcmd add apppool /name:"My App Pool" /managedRuntimeVersion:v2.0 /managedPipelineMode:Classic
appcmd add apppool /name:"My App Pool" /managedRuntimeVersion:v4.0 /managedPipelineMode:Integrated

List:

appcmd list apppool

List apps and their app pools:

appcmd list app

Assign app pool to an app:

appcmd set app "APPNAME/" -applicationPool:"My App Pool"

Installing a certificate

You need the pfx file.

certutil -p <password> -importPFX C:\Certificates\MyCertificate.pfx
netsh http add sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:443 certhash=<hash-of-certificate> appid={<app-guid-use-arbitrary-guid-if-needed>}

Author

Jon LaBelle, [email protected] - original version
Marco Mastropaolo [email protected] - added app pools management

Resources

xanathar/iis7_command_line_tool.md