- Windows is a secure, stable operating system that can effectively run PHP/MySQL and Drupal websites using IIS as the web server. Key advantages include excellent performance, integration with Windows server features, and easy deployment and management tools like WebPI and WebDeploy. - IIS provides a high-performance platform for PHP and Drupal through features like FastCGI, URL rewrite, and Windows Cache. SQL Server is also a good database option supported by Drupal modules. - Tools like WebPI, Drush, and WebDeploy streamline Drupal installation and management on Windows. Web hosting programs like WebsitesSpark provide resources for developing on the Microsoft platform.

1. Windows
Drupal
Alessandro Pilotti
@alexpilotti
MVP ASP .NET / IIS
Windows Azure Insider
MCSD, MCAD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT
Red Hat Certified Engineer

2. Some Facts About the
Windows OS
— Based on Windows NT, released in July 1993
— Hardware independent OS
— POSIX subsystem
— Provides excellent command line tools
— PowerShell
— Excellent security model
— Server Core option for minimal GUI and footprint

3. Windows and IIS
Product Name OS Version IIS Release
Windows XP 5.1 5.1 08/01
Windows Server 2003 5.2 6.0 03/03
Windows Vista 6.0 (Build 7.0 01/07
6000)
Windows Server 2008 6.0 (Build 7.0 03/08
6001)
Windows 7 6.1 7.5 07/09
Windows Server 2008 6.1 7.5 07/09
R2
Windows 8 6.2 8.0 ?
Windows Server 2012 6.2 8.0 ?

4. IIS 6
— Kernel level component (http.sys) listens to HTTP requests
— HUGE performance improvement over IIS 5
— All user code runs in separate processes
— Worker Process (w3wp.exe)
— Crashes in worker processes don’t affect the stability of the
service
— Web gardens
— Multiple WP per single web applications
— Configuration stored in a XML metabase
— MetaBase.Xml
— MBSchema.Xml

5. IIS 7.x / 8.0
— Complete redesign over IIS 6.0
— Modular design
— http.sys is still part of the architecture
— Improved remote administration and delegation
— Enhanced command line and scripting tools
— Including PowerShell cmdlets
— Flexible model not limited to HTTP
— Tight integration with WCF

6. Security
— Windows is a very secure OS!
— Running Internet Explorer as administrator and getting
malware does not mean that the system is flawed
— RunAs permits to execute processes as different users
— Windows Server 2008 introduced some unique security
features
— Windows Firewall
— Since Windows Server 2008:
— Address space layout randomization (ASLR)
— Network Access Protection (NAP)

7. Comparing PHP Stacks
— Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP
— Windows + Apache + MySQL + PHP
— Windows + IIS + MySQL + PHP
— Windows + IIS + MS SQL Server + PHP

8. Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP
— Pros
— Most known and deployed stack in OSS world
— Linux is a highly configurable operating system
— Most Linux distributions can easily be configured for
Apache, MySQL and PHP (yum / apt-get / etc)
— Apache is a highly modular and scalable web server
— Lots of documentation available
— Tightly integrated update process (yum / apt-get)
— Cons
— Lack of simple configuration tools
— Configuration requires a wide knowledge
— Deployment differences between distributions

9. Windows + Apache + MySQL + PHP
— Pros
— Most of the components are shared with the LAMP stack
— Suitable for solutions that require integration with both
Apache modules (e.g. mod_rewrite) and Windows
— Until FastCGI for IIS showed up, undoubtfully the best PHP
stack on Windows
— Tools like XAMPP provide an easy deployment option
— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WAMPs
— Cons
— Performance
— Limited documentation and examples
— Limited integration in the Windows ecosystem
— Heterogeneous scenario for security updates

10. Windows + IIS + MySQL + PHP
— Pros
— Performance (FastCGI and WinCache)
— Tightly integrated in the IIS 7.x ecosystem
— Easy to configure an deploy via WebPI
— Easy to manage via IIS Manager
— Easy to script via WebDeploy and Powershell
— Cons
— Web apps requiring integration with Apache modules
need to be reviewed

11. MySQL and Microsoft SQL
Server
— Using PHP Data Objects PDO eases portability
issues
— SQL Server is a choice to evaluate in scenarios that
require high availability
— PHP Drivers for SQL Server 3.0 just released!
— Drupal + SQL Server through Commerce Guys
module

12. PHP on Windows
— COM integration
— Simplest way to access OS native 3rd party features
— Marshaling performance is not brilliant (IDispatch / late
binding)
— .NET integration (experimental)
— W32Api (experimental)
— Register / Invoke API functions
— Be careful with the parameters on the stack
— win32service
— start/stop/register/unregister services
— Note: flock() has a slightly different behavior on Windows

13. IIS 7 Modules
— Individual features used to process a request
— Executed in a pipeline
— Native
— OS specific binaries (e.g. written in C++)
— More performant
— Managed
— .NET assemblies, executed by the .NET CLR
— More secure and manageable

14. Windows Server 2012 - SNI
— Windows Server 2012 introduces some important
features
— Huge performance improvements for multi-tenant!
— Server Name Indication (SNI)
— Assign different X509 certificates to different host
headers
— Requires IE >= 7.0, Chrome >= 6.0, FF >= 2.0,
SafariMobile >= 5.0
— Non supported in IE on Windows XP (even on IE 9)!

15. CPU Throttling
— CPU resource pooling is a problem in IIS 7.x
— Processes exceeding their quota get killed, not
throttled
— Lots of errors in user applications
— Not suitable for multitenant scenarios
— This feature required specific kernel support

16. Windows Server 2012
CPU Throttling

17. WebPI
— Microsoft Web Platform Installer (WebPI) is a free
tool that simplifies deployment of web solutions
— IIS features and extensions
— WinCache, PHP Drivers for SQL Server, PHP Manager
— Frameworks
— PHP 5.2 / 5.3, .Net, etc
— Web applications
— Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, DotNetNuke, Orchard, etc
— Database
— MS SQL Server Express, MySQL, etc
— WebMatrix
— WebMatrix 2 RC available!

18. Drupal via WebPI
— Fastest way to setup Drupal on IIS
— Takes care of all the steps
— Deploy of Drupal (6.x or 7.x)
— Dependencies
— PHP IIS: CGI, URL Rewrite, VC9, WinCache, etc
,
— File permissions
— Database creation

19. Windows Cache Extension
for PHP
— Open source project developed by Microsoft
— IIS Specific accelerator
— Requires PHP 5.2 or 5.3 x86
— Non thread safe version
— Provides features not available in APC and
other accelerators
— Current version: 1.1

20. Drush 5.x
— A command line shell and scripting interface
— Written in PHP
— MS SQL Server is supported
— Windows setup available on
http://drush.ws/drush_windows_installer
— Takes care of all required dependencies
— Requires elevation

21. Drush aliases
— Create a file aliases.drushrc.php in %UserProfile%.drush
$aliases[’drupal7'] = array(
'root' => '/path/to/drupal',
'uri' => 'dev.mydrupalsite.com',
'os' => 'Windows',
'remote-user' => 'Administrator',
'winrs-password' => 'Passw0rd',
'remote-host' => 'DrupalWeb1'
);

22. Server Farm
— IIS extensions:
— Application request Routing (ARR)
— Web Farm Framework (WFF)
— You can enable independently
— Load balancing and caching
— Server farm provisioning
— Platform / applications

23. WebDeploy
— Web Application Packaging
— Application or site, including DBs
— Sources and destinations can be
— Live servers
— Zip files
— Deployment
— Administrative rights not required
— Integration with VMSVC for remote deployment
— IIS server synchronization
— Entire server / site / application
— Differential
— Detects missing dependencies

24. — http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/
— Software
— Production licenses for self hosting: Windows Web Server 2008 R2; SQL Server
2008 Web Edition and development tools
— Azure
— WebsiteSpark members get up to $1400* in annual Windows Azure resources
— Training
— Free online training and access to the MSDN developer community and resources
— Support
— 2 professional support incidents
— Criteria
— An individual or a company with < than 10 employees engaged in website design &
development
— Check out also BizSpark for startups
— http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/

25. Resources
http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-windows
http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/PHP-at-Scale-on-the-Microsoft-
Platform
Free Webcasts!
— Deploying Drupal on IIS with Web Platform Installer (WebPI)
— Deploying Drupal on IIS without Web Platform Installer (WebPI)
— Building a Drupal Web Farm with IIS and Application Request Routing
(ARR) - Part 1
— Building a Drupal Web Farm with IIS - Part 2
— IIS URL Rewrite for PHP and Drupal
— Web Deployment Tool (WebDeploy) for Drupal sites
— Optimizing Drupal and PHP sites on IIS, including Profile Guided
Optimization (PGO)
— Optimizing Drupal in IIS with Memcache and Solr
— Configuring and managing Drupal with SQL Server
— Managing Drupal on the Windows Platform with Drush