Managing the Migration Process

The Solution

In addition to basic IIS 5.0 functionality, the solution you define might use related products that provide advanced services, such as SQL Server and Site Server. Fortunately, Microsoft applications were built to work together, making it easy to implement solutions. For example, you can use FrontPage wizards to insert a data call in a Web page so it interacts with SQL Server and an existing database. For more information about database applications, see Developing Web Applications in this book. For examples of IIS 5.0 solutions, see http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/.

You might plan to migrate to IIS 5.0 because of a specific requirement supported by a particular capability IIS 5.0 provides. However, the Planning phase is also an ideal time to assess any additional features of IIS 5.0 that could enhance your existing services. Rather than exactly replicating your current services, and substituting IIS 5.0 features in place of existing ones, you might want to consider adding new capabilities. In addition, you may need to consider retiring gopher services, which aren’t supported by IIS 5.0, or making provisions to continue providing them through another server. Earlier in this section, Table 2.2, Project Requirements and Deliverables provided some examples of the deliverables that an IIS 5.0 migration project could encompass.

To compare IIS 5.0 features with those of other Web servers, follow the links to the Web server comparison page from the Windows 2000 Server Web site, located at http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/.