using Railo to run .cfm (coldfusion) files on IIS7 Windows Server 2003

Awesome blog post from http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/. All of the contents below are extracted from the original article here: http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/windows-2008-railo-iis-7

First, download Railo server. Go here http://www.getrailo.org/index.cfm/download and scroll down, then download the exe under Railo server.


Run the installer, I chose to install in C:\Railo to keep things really simple.

After it’s installed try http://localhost:8600/railo-context/admin/server.cfm on the server.
Don’t set anything up yet or add DSNs. I’m not sure if this is true but the admin is different for each site. At least I found that if I added a DSN under localhost it would not show up for the site. More on that later …

Open IIS and add a script mapping to your handler mappings.

Script: *.cfm
DLL: C:\Railo\win32\isapi_srun.dll
Name: CFviaRailo

Within handler mappings click on edit feature permissions from the right hand side and allow EXE. This is bad for the whole server so I recommend doing it on the sites individually.

If you are using Windows 2008 R2 x64 make sure the application pool for the site is set to allow 32bit apps and also set it to no managed code.

Open resin.conf in C:\Railo\conf. Find the line:

<!– configures a deployment directory for virtual hosts –>


Above that line put the following.
<!– configure IIS sites routing by host –>
<host id=”your-domain-name.com” root-directory=”.”>
<web-app id=”/” document-directory=”C:/inetpub/wwwroot/file-path”/>
</host>

Do the same for any other sites that will run Railo. Restart IIS (cmd –> iisreset) and the Railo server in services.

Now, in a web browser open the Railo admin under that site. Hopefully everything works for you. The URL would be “http://your-domain.com/railo-context/admin/server.cfm. You should be asked to set an admin password. After you do that and login add your datasources, setup the mail server, turn off debugging, and any other settings you like. With all that done your site should run as long as it doesn’t require something Railo doesn’t offer.

Like I said this is very basic and I did this for some relatively simple websites. I’m not sure if this is correct or recommended.Keep in mind that Resin is the web server, it is running the Railo sites and the CFML. IIS is simply passing the cfml to resin/railo. Just like normal CF/Java.

Some other links that helped me.

http://blog.durhamcons.com/post.cfm/railo-3-0-community-resin-3-1-and-iis6-learn-from-my-mistakes

http://www.railo.ch/blog/index.cfm/2009/6/24/h2Configuring-Railo-for-the-application-server–Part-1h2

Server running on 64-bit or 32-bit?

Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Method 1
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. Click the General tab. The operating system appears as follows:
• For a 64-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition appears under System.
• For a 32-bit version operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition appears under System.

Method 2
1. Click Start, click Run, type winmsd.exe, and then click OK.
2. In the details pane, locate Processor under Item. Note the value.
• If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with x86, the computer is running a 32-bit version of the Windows operating system.
• If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with EM64T or ia64, the computer is running a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system.

Note: - Intel Itanium-based computers can only run 64-bit versions of Windows. Intel Itanium-based computers cannot run a 32-bit Windows operating system. Currently, 64-bit versions of Windows only run on Itanium-based computers and AMD64-based computers.

quick way to check server physical or virtual machine

One of the fastest ways is to check by MAC addresses. If it starts with


00:0C:29 VMWare (auto)
00:50:56 VMWare (manual)
00:16:3e Xen

The VPS provider can change the MAC address ranges (in Xen at least) but most people usually don't bother. It's by no means a foolproof method though.
 
On Windows just open a command prompt window and type getmac.
The MAC address will be the column on the left (under Physical Address)
e.g.
C:\>getmac

Physical Address Transport Name
=================== ==============================
00-D0-xx-xx-xx-xx \Device\Tcpip_{GUID}