Can anyone suggest the best way of moving websites on server1 with IIS7 to server2 with IIS 7.5 on it? I've read some articles which suggest copying the applicationHost.config file while preserving the configProtectedData node, but I'm concerned there may be settings in the IIS 7.5 config that don't exist in the current IIS7 config which would be lost.
I've also seen suggestions of moving each site individually by using a command like this: AppCmd.exe LIST SITE "My Site" /config /XML > mysite.xml
This method just takes too long to do this for dozens of sites. There must be a better way of moving all the sites at once to the new platform.
I posted this question originally on stackoverflow.com and someone suggested I post it here as well. Here's the posts and responses from there: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1955273/move-websites-from-iis7-to-iis-7-5
Best Answer
First make sure that the installed programs are the same on each. Make sure that the 7.5 install doesn't have 'more' apps installed, otherwise the server config installer will have a problem with future installs.
Then use Shared Configuration from the top level in IIS. Export the config, copy the 3 files over to a temporary location and then point to the files on the new end (in the temporary location). Confirm that it works as promised and then turn off shared configuration. There will be a prompt that allows you to copy the files back to the normal location. Accept that and you'll have a fully migrated machine that doesn't need to use shared configuration either.
Some things to consider are: - custom app pool identities need to be either AD users or local users with identical names and passwords. If you don't have that, just manually reassign users to the app pools. - make sure that content, GAC, registry, COM+ and NTFS permissions are set on the new server. - and SSL. Even the IIS SSL settings won't come over, so they need to be manually reapplied.