Another beta of IIS 7.0 now available

If you just can’t wait until Microsoft’s production quality servers ship, you don’t have to, with IIS7 beta 3 added to the list of other freebie servers Microsoft has made available. (Wouldn't a "third beta" actually be a "delta" ...? How many times does a bit of software get to be called the second before it really should be called the third or fourth? ) The company's Internet Information Services blog says the beta versions are all ready to be tested with the latest beta of “Longhorn” otherwise known by the snappy name of Windows Server 2008. The blog says that with this release, you can test and plan your IIS& roll-out basically now, months before Windows Server 2008 ships.

Some hosting companies have already lined up to provide the free IIS 7.0 beta, the blog promises. For what is worth, Bill’s IIS blog (a Microsoft employee) reports that IIS7 beta 3, which has been running on internal Microsoft servers since the early beta days, has had 99,83 available, measured by Keynote Systems Inc.

This is with a hosting model on two Internet Data Centers and 80 Web servers, he says.

• 500+ Vroots, 350+ IIS Web Applications & 12 Application Pools
• 10,000 Requests/Sec & 300,000 Concurrent Connections

New features for IIS 7.0 include a bunch of virtualization options like the “global configuration” option in the new IIS Manager admin tool. It lets IIS servers share confirmations across multiple servers. It offers automatic setup for ApplicationPools and remote administration over HTTP/SSL (a feature that will overjoy the bothearders, no doubt).

Other beta servers available via the free "Go-Live" license include Windows Media Services and Windows SharePoint Services. Read more.

Also see:

Microsoft releases Windows Server 2008 beta: Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0 now an installation option