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Creating a Web Site from a Template

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

If you have a standard Web site configuration that you use or plan to use frequently, you can use IIS Manager to create a Web site template. To do this, export the configuration of the site to a file, and then use that file to create new sites. The exported configuration is stored as a metabase XML configuration file; it does not contain content. After you export the configuration file, you can import that file into a different directory on the same Web server or to a different Web server.

You can also export and import sites and application pools as configuration files to quickly migrate sites and application pools between servers. This feature allows you to import Web applications if the developer stored the application in a configuration file.

Important

You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform the following procedure or procedures. As a security best practice, log on to your computer by using an account that is not in the Administrators group, and then use the runas command to run IIS Manager as an administrator. At a command prompt, type runas /user:Administrative_AccountName "mmc %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc".

To create a Web site template file

  1. In IIS Manager, double-click the local computer, right-click the site or application that you want to back up, point to All Tasks, and then click Save Configuration to a File.

  2. In the Save Configuration to a File dialog box, in the File name box, type a file name.

  3. In the Path box, type the full path to the configuration file, or click Browse to browse to the location where you want to save the file, and then click OK.

To create a new site from a template file

  1. In IIS Manager, double-click the local computer, right-click the Web Sites folder, point to New, and then click Web Site (from file).

  2. In the Import Configuration dialog box, in the File box, type the full path to the configuration file, or click Browse to browse for the file.

  3. Click Read File.

    The Select a configuration to import box is populated.

  4. In Select a configuration to import, click the configuration that you want to import, and then click OK.