Webinator 23 and IIS Virtual Hosts

[michael.mongeau]

I have installed v23 on IIS 10.0 (Windows 2016) and it has created the applications "texis" and "webinator" under the Default Web Site. We have a number of virtual web sites that also need the search capability. How should I create these applications under those virtual sites?

Thanks,

Michael Mongeau
Stratus Technologies

[jason112]

These /texis and /webinator applications can be manually recreated for other sites. Our Search Appliance docs describe how to do this, but it's not totally accurate for how Webinator would need it. While I fix up the docs, I'll include the instructions here. You'll be doing this once for each site you want to have /texis accessible.

----------------------
Add the /texis application

• Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
• Right click on the web site you want to use and select Add Application...
• In the Alias box, enter texis.
• In the Application pool box, select ThunderstonePool.
• In the Physical Path box, browse to the INSTALLDIR/etc/ISAPI-virtualdir folder.
• Click OK to complete the wizard and return to the IIS Manager window.

Apply proxyModule.dll as a Wildcard Application Map

• In IIS Manager, click the newly created texis application, and double-click Handler Mappings in the center list.
• Choose Add Wildcard Script Map on the right.
• For the name, enter Thunderstone Proxy Module.
• Set the executable to INSTALLDIR/etc/proxyModule.dll.
• When you hit OK to close that window, you'll be prompted with Do you want to allow this ISAPI Extension? Choose Yes.
• In IIS8, an additional step is required:
  • Right click on the new handler mapping, choose Edit...
  • Click the Request Restrictions button that wasn't present before.
  • Uncheck Invoke handler only if request is mapped to: box and click OK, and accept allowing the extension again.

Add the /webinator virtual directory

• Right click on the web site and select Add Virtual Directory...
• In the Alias box, enter webinator.
• In the Physical Path box, browse to the INSTALLDIR/htdocs/webinator folder.
• Click OK to complete the wizard and return to the IIS Manager window.

And that should do it. This will provide the exact same webinator interface as any other site, so you'll want to choose the appropriate profile when searching.

[michael.mongeau]

I followed the instructions to add the texis application to another web site. After completing the steps I navigated to the default web site Admin UI and encountered this error:

http://127.0.0.1/texis/webinator/dowalk/

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error
The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

Error Code 0x800700b7
ErrConfig Error Cannot add duplicate collection entry of type 'add' with unique key attribute 'name' set to 'Thunderstone Proxy Module
Config File \\?\E:\Apps\Thunderstone\Webinator\etc\ISAPI-virtualdir\web.config

INSTALLDIR\etc\ISAPI-virtualdir\web.config contents

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<handlers>
<add name="Thunderstone Proxy Module" path="*" verb="*" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="E:\Apps\Thunderstone\Webinator\etc\ProxyModule.dll" resourceType="Unspecified" requireAccess="None" preCondition="bitness64" />
</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

[michael.mongeau]

I removed the texis application created on the second web site and restarted IIS but I still get the error above.

When I navigate in IIS Manager to the Default Web Site / texis application and double-click Handler Mappings I get the error:

handler.png (7.64 KiB) Viewed 13430 times

[jason112]

Ok, if you have ASP.NET installed the Handler Mapping configuration will be written to web.config in the target location, and multiple /texis applications pointing to the same target location don't need to re-do the "Apply proxyModule.dll as a Wildcard Application Map" step.

Strangely, my IIS Administration UI prevented me adding a duplicate "Thunderstone Proxy Module" in the first place, rather than allowing it to be added and blowing up the IIS configuration.

Given that the manager itself balks at the existing redundant configuration, you can delete the "INSTALLDIR/etc/ISAPI-virtualdir/web.config" file, and redo the Handler Mapping configuration once.

[michael.mongeau]

That worked. I removed the web.config file and recreated the primary texis application and wildcard application map. Then I added the application to the second site without the wildcard application map step. Search is now working on both sites.

Thanks for the help.

Michael