How can I programmatically stop or start a website in IIS (6.0 and 7.0) using MsBuild?

Question

I have Windows Server 2003 (IIS 6.0) and Windows Server 2008 (IIS 7.0) servers, and I use MSBuild for deploying web applications.

I need to do a safe deploy, and do this:

1. Stop a website in IIS 6 (or an Application in IIS 7), not stop AppPool.

2. Check if the website is stopped; not running.

3. If the website is stopped, do another task for deploy.

4. Start the website IIS 6 (or Application in IIS 7),

How can I achieve this?

Update: Key for me: IIS6WebSite and IIS6AppPool (and for IIS7), do wait for stopped status when try Stop Website or AppPool?

When I execute Stop Action for Website (or Stop Action for AppPool), I need be sure 100% that Website is stopped, and then, and only if Website is Stopped, I can execute other targets.

Solution 1

By adding a reference to Microsoft.Web.Administration (which can be found inX:\Windows\System32\inetsrv, or your systems equivalent) you can achieve nice managed control of the situation with IIS7, as sampled below:

namespace StackOverflow
{
    using System;
    using System.Linq;
    using Microsoft.Web.Administration;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var server = new ServerManager();
            var site = server.Sites.FirstOrDefault(s => s.Name == "Default Web Site");
            if (site != null)
            {
                //stop the site...
                site.Stop();
                if (site.State == ObjectState.Stopped)
                {
                    //do deployment tasks...
                }
                else
                {
                    throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not stop website!");
                }
                //restart the site...
                site.Start();
            }
            else
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not find website!");
            }
        }
    }
}

Obviously tailor this to your own requirements and through your deployment build script execute the resulting application.

Enjoy. :)

Solution 2

• Write a script, e.g. PowerShell, which will stop/start IIS web site programmatically relying on command-line argument, e.g. start-stop.ps1 /stop 1

• Put it into MsBuild script as a custom step

---

Check this to find out how to restart IIS AppPool

IIS WMI objects reference

Comments

[Grant Thomas]

Just to note IIS7 has a managed API, rather than relying on DirectoryServices or WMI: learn.iis.net/page.aspx/284/using-managed-apis-in-iis-7 and msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/…

[Kiquenet]

Can I use Microsoft.Web.Administration for Win2003-IIS 6 and VS 2008 .NET 3.5 ??

[Kiquenet]

any sample msbuild and powershell ?. I need stop and start WebSites in iis6, (or sites in iis7), not appPool.

[Grant Thomas]

No, this will only work for IIS7. You will need a different approach for IIS6, such as using WMI or DirectoryServices.

[Mike Christensen]

Note Microsoft.Web.Administration can also be found on NuGet

[Thameem]

Do you have any idea of running the site through winforms cefsharp

[Rask]

Great answer. Thanks! In my case I found that I also needed to stop and start the application pool.