A metabase key is a location in the metabase analogous to a directory in the file system. A metabase path is a sequence of keys separated by a forward slash (/) that uniquely identifies the location of a key in the metabase. Key names in the metabase are not unique unless qualified by their metabase paths, just as different files with the same name can exist in different directories.
You can use the path of a metabase key with the IIS Admin Objects to access the specific IIS Admin Object associated with that key. The IIS Admin Objects use the Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) path, called the ADsPath, to refer to the object associated with a key. The path starts with IIS:// and then uses the term LocalHost, or a specific computer name, to refer to the IIsComputer object, which is associated with the highest key in the metabase.
The paths to objects associated with other metabase keys are an extension of the ADsPath to the computer key. For example, the ADsPath for the first Web site in your IIS installation would be IIS://LocalHost/W3SVC/1. You could also use the path IIS://ComputerName/W3SVC/1 to access the metabase on a different computer.
Each Web site is a server instance, and is referred to in the path by its number. For example, IIS://LocalHost/MSFTPSVC/3 represents the third FTP server instance, and IIS://ComputerName/W3SVC/4 represents the fourth Web server instance.
Each Web site has an associated root virtual directory. All other virtual directories and directories associated with a server instance are subordinate to this root virtual directory. The name of the root virtual directory is ROOT. IIS://LocalHost/MSFTPSVC/3/ROOT refers to the root virtual directory for the third FTP server on the local computer, and IIS://LocalHost/W3SVC/4/ROOT refers to the root virtual directory for the fourth Web server on the same computer.
You can establish the structure below the root virtual directory of a server instance by adding virtual directories, directories, and files. For FTP servers, metabase properties can be set to the virtual-directory level. For Web servers, you can set properties to the level of directories and files. For example, you could use the path IIS://LocalHost/W3SVC/2/ROOT/MyVdir1/Dir1/File1 to set file properties such as read, write, and execute permissions.