I had another great question from a customer the other day, and I thought that his question was the perfect impetus for me to write blog that explained the different modes of IIS Express.
The customer's issue was that he was trying to run IIS Express from a command-line by specifying the path to a folder and he wanted to use that with SSL. He couldn't find a way to accomplish that, so he asked Scott Hanselman if there was a switch that he was missing, and Scott sent him my way. In the meantime, he was copying one of the IIS Express template ApplicationHost.config files and configuring SSL by modifying the XML programmatically.
First of all, the short answer is that there isn't some form of "/https" switch for IIS Express that the customer was asking about.
But that being said, this seemed like a great occasion for me to explain a little bit of design architecture for IIS Express, which might help everyone understand a little bit about what's going on behind the scenes when you run IIS Express.
In case you weren't aware, there are actually two modes that you can use with IIS Express:
- Personal Web Server Mode
- Application Server Mode
Having said that, I'll explain what both of those fancy titles actually mean, and how you can use IIS Express with SSL.
Personal Web Server Mode
When you are using Personal Web Server Mode, one ApplicationHost.config file is created per user by default, (unless an alternate file is specified on the command-line), and by default that ApplicationHost.config file is kept in your "%UserProfile%\Documents\IISExpress\config" folder.
In this mode, websites are persistent like they are with the full version of IIS, and the template that is used to create the per-user ApplicationHost.config file is located at:
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\config\templates\PersonalWebServer\ApplicationHost.config"
Note: When you are using Personal Web Server Mode, your default website is named "WebSite1".
The general syntax for Personal Web Server Mode is:
iisexpress.exe [/config:config-file] [/site:site-name] [/systray:true|false] [/siteid:site-id] [/userhome:user-home]
If you are using IIS Express from a command-line with no parameters, or you are using IIS Express with WebMatrix or Visual Studio, then you are using Personal Web Server Mode. You can use SSL by enabling HTTPS in either WebMatrix or Visual Studio, or you can modify your ApplicationHost.config file directly and add an HTTPS binding to a website.
Application Server Mode
When you are using "Application Server Mode," a temporary ApplicationHost.config file generated when IIS Express starts in the user's "%TEMP%\iisexpress" folder.
In this mode, sites are transient like they are with Cassini, and the template that is used to create the temporary ApplicationHost.config file is located at:
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\AppServer\ApplicationHost.config"
Note: When you are using Application Server Mode, your default website is named "Development Web Site".
The general syntax for Application Server Mode is:
iisexpress.exe /path:app-path [/port:port-number] [/clr:clr-version] [/systray:true|false]
If you are using IIS Express from a command-line by specifying the path to a folder, then you are usingApplication Server Mode, and unfortunately you can't use SSL with this mode.
Using SSL with IIS Express
As I have already mentioned, if you are using Personal Web Server Mode, you can use SSL by enabling HTTPS in WebMatrix or Visual Studio if you are using either of those tools, or you can modify your ApplicationHost.config file directly and add an HTTPS binding to a website.
However, there is no way to specify HTTPS for Application Server Mode; but that being said, there are definitely workarounds that you can use.
Copying the template file like the customer was doing is a good place to start. But I need to state an important warning: you should never modify the actual template files that are installed with IIS Express! However, if you copy the template files somewhere else on your system, you can modify the copied files as much as you want.
If you are using IIS 8 Express, we've made it possible to use AppCmd.exe with any ApplicationHost.config file by using the "/apphostconfig" switch. So instead of modifying the XML directly, you can use AppCmd.exe to make your changes for you.
For example, the following batch file creates a temporary website and sets it up for use with HTTPS:
@echo off
pushd "%~dp0"
REM Create the website's folders.
md %SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp
md %SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\wwwroot
md %SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config
REM Copy the template configuration file.
copy "%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\AppServer\ApplicationHost.config" %SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config
REM Configure the website's home directory.
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\appcmd.exe" set config -section:system.ApplicationHost/sites /"[name='Development Web Site'].[path='/'].[path='/'].physicalPath:%SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\wwwroot" /commit:apphost /apphostconfig:%SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config\ApplicationHost.config
REM Configure the website for SSL.
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\appcmd.exe" set config -section:system.ApplicationHost/sites /+"[name='Development Web Site'].bindings.[protocol='https',bindingInformation='127.0.0.1:8443:']" /commit:apphost /apphostconfig:%SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config\ApplicationHost.config
REM Enable directory browsing so this example works without a home page.
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\appcmd.exe" set config "Development Web Site" -section:system.webServer/directoryBrowse /enabled:"True" /commit:apphost /apphostconfig:%SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config\ApplicationHost.config
REM Run the website with IIS Express.
"%ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe" /config:%SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp\config\ApplicationHost.config /siteid:1 /systray:false
REM Clean up the website folders.
rd /q /s %SystemDrive%\myhttpstemp
popd
As you can see in the above example, this is a little more involved than simply invoking Application Server Mode with a switch to enable HTTPS, but it's still very easy to do. The changes that we've made in IIS 8 Express make it easy to script Personal Web Server Mode in order to enable SSL for a temporary website.
In Closing...
I hope this information makes using the various IIS Express modes and SSL a little clearer, and you can get IIS 8 Express by following the link in the following blog post: