What is the exact difference between Windows Azure and Windows IIS? - iis

I have finished developing a webapplication on Visual Studio 2012 along with Microsoft SQL 2008. I'm trying to make it a "live" webapp which can be accessed through the phone rather than a localhost.
I researched and found 2 solutions which are
IIS
Azure
I have been looking all over the net for various clear explaination of the main difference between IIS and Azure. From my understanding, IIS is a web server application that comes with Windows Server and is used to serve up web sites while Azure is a Windows hosting solution that utilizes IIS. In that case why do people still uses IIS while Azure provide both a cloud platform and IIS?
Which is also better to host any typical web-application that used to run on the localhost?
I can't seems to find any thread in SO or ASP.Net forum which can clearly explain the main difference between the two along with the advantage and disadvantage.
Here are some of the link1, link2 i have found that provide brief information about the two.

What you are looking for is actually a place to run your web application, Teo.
As you've found, you can do that in IIS if you have a server that is connected to the Internet. A way to get such a server is to either got to a hosting company or just use the Windows Azure cloud as you've found as well.
One of the simplest ways for you to do this right now and for free is to sign up for a Windows Azure trial account. As part of that account you get a basic, shared Windows Azure Website for free.
Here are the links you need:
(1) http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/tutorials/get-started/
(2) http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/
I would strongly recommend that you go through the entire tutorial (1) step-by-step before trying to do this with your own application. Before you start, sign up for a trial account (2). You will not be charged in the first month and you will not be charged if you stick with the free website.
Enjoy.

Comparing IIS to Azure is irrelevant. Those are two different concepts, which are vaguely related to each other. You lack some very basic understanding of what each one means, and I recommend you to go and read about each them from scratch.
IIS is indeed a web server application. That means, for example, that it can rout HTTP request and responds to and from the web site application that you have created.
To keep it simple, let's say that IIS can run on any Windows machine, which makes the machine a Web Server.
If you want to have your web site up and running, you need either have your own machine that acts as a web server, or either upload your web site application to some other machine.
Azure is a group of cloud services. One of the services is a Web Site Host, that allows you to use cloud computers to run the IIS that hosts your web site.
As part of the service, Azure will take care of installing and using the IIS server for you.
Bottom line, if you are going the Windows path, you will probably end up using Both Azure and IIS (unless you will want to self host your web site...)

Related

How to synchronize more than one IIS web servers

I have a .net web application, I want to host the app into more than one IIS web servers. The web servers must synchronized so if one web server is down than the others should respond to user requests.
Check out tools like:
gtg.dk
deploybot.com
Check out also deployplace it is very similar to DeployBot, but much more powerful and allows to deploy complicated application. It's still in beta, but there is a free plan.

Asp.Net Web API and Azure Web Role

I created a web application using Asp.net web api in azure and i want to consume it with a web role application ! what is the difference between web application and web role and what should i do ! thanks
An azure webapp is a website you host on azure as a normal website.
you don't really have a lot you can do with the machine. Just see it as normal website hosting.
A webrole is part of a cloud service. Which is a bit more flexible. Web roles allow you to install for example applications on the vm you are running your application. The state of the machine is not held so if the machine goes down you lose all data you stored on it. In fact you upload a sort of zip package with the application inside. This installs the app and when something goes wrong a new machine is started and the package is installed again on that new machine. This is also 'an issue' with azure websites.
Here is a good link with some more info + with info on virtual machines which is in fact a layer lower, meaning that you have more control over the machine.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/choose-web-site-cloud-service-vm/
In most of the scenarios Azure Web App is what you should use. It provides all the capabilities required for almost all websites.
However, Web App may not work in few scenarios e.g.,
When you have a dependency on software or library that you need to bundle with your code
You need to RDP into the machine for some purpose
...
In those scenarios you will have to depend on Web role.

What is the difference between Azure Web Site and Azure Cloud service

We are looking to host a website (some css,js, one html file but not aspx, one generic handler).
We deployed in as:
1) Azure Web Site
2) Azure Cloud Service
Both solutions work. There is a question though: which way of hosting it is better and why? Second thing: as there might be a lot of traffic - which solution would be cheaper?
Thanks in advance,
Krzysztofuncjusz
You may want to review this article that explains the primary differences. Web Sites are best for running web applications that are relatively isolated (that do not require elevated security, remote desktop, network isolation...). Cloud services are more advanced because they give you more control over web sites while still remaining flexible. And VMs are for full control over applications that need to be installed and configured (like running SQL Server for example).
I think that main difference in abilities to modify VM and possibility to configure scalability. Web sites is something like classic hosting, without ability to login by rdp. Cloud Services allows you to configure VM and if necessary setup scalability and availability.

Best options to host my asmx web service on machine not having IIS

We have a requirement where we need to have some web services running on a server machine but it does not have IIS available. I came across this article on running asmx without IIS and many other sites/blogs have mentioned this article as well.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163879.aspx
Could somebody offer alternatives to above to run asmx web services without IIS installed?
Other option i could find was Cassini - http://ultidev.com/products/cassini/
Windows Azure! That is precisely what it was designed for... it’s cheap and reliable!

ApplicationPoolIdentity cannot access network resources

My Setup: W2K8-R2 IIS7.5 x64bit servers (app pool is running in 32bit, though)
We have a (.net 4.0) web application that runs under the "ApplicationPoolIdentity". It has "Windows Authentication" enabled. The web app calls a web service on different (older - W2K3 II6) web server (same domain). The web service requires Windows Authentication as well.
On some of our web servers, this works well and I can see that the Web App calls the web service and identifies itself as the machine name for the web server it is running on (as expected). However on other web servers the application will not identify itself when it calls the web service and thus gets a 403 error (this is confirmed by looking at the IIS logs for the web service).
I've compared the web servers that work versus those that don't and I can't find any significant differences. (I compared the ApplicationHost.Config files from both sites and with the exception of a few encryption keys they are identical).
Any thoughts on what could be causing the App Pool Identity on the bad machines to forgo identifying itself? Did we set something up on one web server and miss it on the other?
If not, can someone recommend tools that could be used to track down what's going on?
Thanks for any help.
For anyone else who find this question, it is answered is several places :
Granting write permissions to a networked UNC folder for ASP.NET under IIS 7.5 and Windows Server 2008 R2
IIS application using application pool identity loses primary token?
DirectoryServicesCOMException 80072020 From IIS 7.5 Site Running Under ApplicationPoolIdentity
ApplicationPoolIdentity cannot access network resources
https://serverfault.com/questions/217547/applicationpoolidentity-iis-7-5-to-sql-server-2008-r2-not-working
Summary: Install MS HotFix KB2545850 and learn the details about this bug in KB2672809 which also shows how to reproduce this issue.
An update in case anyone runs into this... We realized that the common thread between servers that worked was that they had been rebooted recently. After rebooting the problem servers, they too started working.
At this point I can't explain what the issue was, but it appears a reboot solved it. I will update if the problem reoccurs.

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