Powershell, Powershell SnapIn, AppCmd.exe

Question

I have just started going through some tutorials of Powershell - for I want to write scripts to create website/virtual dir/appPool
However I am confused about these terms -

Powershell
Powershell SnapIn
AppCmd.exe

It seems they all can be used for IIS 7.0 administration tasks.
Can please share some knowledge about how these three differ with each other?

Thanks a lot!

carlpett · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-19 11:24:52Z

5

Powershell itself cannot really be used for IIS administration - it is "just" a shell. However, it is extensible, by way of snapins and modules, such as the IIS module "WebAdministration". You can load this by using the Import-Module command in powershell. This will make available many commands relevant to IIS administration, such as New-Website and friends. You also get access to a new PSDrive, which is a logical representation of your IIS configuration. It is available by cd IIS:\, and here you can browse your app pools and web sites. Check out this MSDN article for more info.

AppCmd fulfills basically the same role, but without requiring powershell. You can use either for most tasks. I prefer Powershell with the IIS module though, as the scripts are much easier to read, and the PSDrive makes it possible to do a lot of checks that are not easy to do with AppCmd (for instance, check weather a WebSite exists before creating it, in setup scripts)

answered Aug 19, 2012 at 11:24

carlpett

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2 Comments

inutan Over a year ago

Thanks for your reply. One more query - then why Microsoft provides two different tools(AppCmd and Powershell) with almost same features?

carlpett Over a year ago

Sorry, don't know that, and couldn't find a good answer with some research either. I thought it was that appcmd was shipped with earlier versions and was being phased out in favour of powershell, but it seems both were added for IIS7... Hoping someone else can answer!

Manoj Patil · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-27 13:28:55Z

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AppCmd.exe is the single command line tool for managing IIS and you can use powershell to create website/virtual dir/appPool at the time of deployment

Hope this answer you question..

answered Sep 27, 2013 at 13:28

Manoj Patil

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Comments

yaxzone · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-31 15:22:11Z

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Make sure to add the path for appcmd.exe to your ENV path in your $PROFILE file, so it is accessible from anywhere.

$env:Path = $env:Path + ";C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv"

answered Dec 31, 2014 at 15:22

yaxzone

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