Use the Feature Delegation feature page to configure the delegation state of IIS Manager features for sites and applications on your Web server in Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008. When you configure the delegation state of a feature from IIS Manager, you specify whether the feature's related configuration section is locked or unlocked in the server-level configuration files (ApplicationHost.config and root Web.config) for IIS 7. When you lock a feature, configuration can only be read from and written to the server-level configuration file for that feature. However, you can unlock a feature when you want configuration to be read from and written to lower-level configuration files, such as a Web.config file in your site or application.
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Note |
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When you configure delegation state for features in IIS Manager, you control only the configuration sections and the corresponding levels at which settings can be set in the configuration files. |
By using Web.config files to read and save configuration settings for any or all features in your sites and applications, you can easily copy configuration from one computer to another. For example, you might develop an application on a development or test computer, and specify certain features in that application to be written to Web.config. This lets you package all the application's content easily, including its configuration file, and transfer it to another computer.
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Important |
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If you develop a site or an application for a production environment, you must ask someone who is an administrator on the production computer whether the features that you configure in the site's or application's Web.config can be unlocked in the production environment. If the feature you configure in Web.config is locked in the production environment, you may encounter runtime errors because your chosen configuration is invalid. |
In Windows Server 2008, Feature Delegation pairs with the IIS Manager Users and IIS Manager Permissions features to enable non-administrative users to view and configure delegated features in their sites or applications by using IIS Manager. The delegation state of a feature determines whether users can configure the feature in their sites and applications. For example, if you want to let users configure data connection strings, select Connection Strings from the list on the Feature Delegation page, and then click Read/Write from the Actions pane or the right-click menu.
The Feature Delegation page affects all sites and applications on the Web server. The Feature Delegation settings that you configure at the server level are for all sites on the server; the settings that you configure at the site level are for all applications in that site. If you want to configure delegation states for features in a specific site or application, use the Custom Site Delegation and Custom Application Delegation pages.
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Caution |
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If you have configured delegation states for features and you want to change those states later, you should review how the features have been delegated at lower levels in the configuration to make sure you understand how the changes will affect those features at the lower levels. For example, if you originally configured a feature to be Read Only for sites, and a user at the site level configured a more restrictive setting by removing delegation for that feature, you might inadvertently change the state that was set by the user if you configure the feature to be Read/Write at the parent level. As a best practice, you should use a test computer to test how changes to the delegation states affect your environment before you make changes to a production environment. |
UI Element List
The following tables describe the UI elements that are available on the feature page and in the Actions pane.
Feature Page Elements
| Element Name | Description |
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Name |
Displays the name of the UI feature in IIS Manager. Select a feature and then click the delegation state that you want from the Actions pane or from the right-click menu. |
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Delegation |
Displays the delegation state of the UI feature at lower levels. |
Actions Pane Elements
The following table describes the delegation options available for IIS 7 features in IIS Manager and how the delegation options affect the configuration files and user interface (UI). These features are configuration-based features. If you extend IIS Manager to include third-party features, your delegation states might differ from this table if they are user-specified delegation states. Additionally, individual features that you configure on the Feature Delegation page might be protocol-specific and not applicable to all sites and applications.
| Delegation Option | Description for Windows Vista operating systems | Description for Windows Server 2008 operating systems | ||||||||
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Read/Write |
When you select Read/Write for a feature, you unlock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration changes for that feature will then be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. |
When you select Read/Write for a feature, you unlock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration changes for that feature will then be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. Additionally, configuring a feature to be Read/Write enables non-administrative users to see and configure the feature in IIS Manager for sites or applications to which they are allowed to connect. |
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Read Only |
When you select Read Only for a feature, you lock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be written to Web.config files in sites or applications.
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When you select Read Only for a feature, you lock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be written to Web.config files in sites or applications. Additionally, non-administrative users cannot configure the feature in IIS Manager for their sites or applications, but they can see the feature as Read Only in IIS Manager to see how the feature is configured in the server-level configuration file.
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Not Delegated |
When you select Not Delegated for a feature, you lock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. |
When you select Not Delegated for a feature, you lock the feature's related configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. Additionally, non-administrative users will not see the feature in IIS Manager and they will not be able to configure the feature at the site and application levels. |
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Reset to Inherited |
When you select Reset to Inherited for a feature, the feature inherits the delegation state that is set at the parent level. |
When you select Reset to Inherited for a feature, the feature inherits the delegation state that is set at the parent level. |
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Configuration Read/Write |
When you select Configuration Read/Write for a feature, you unlock the feature's configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration changes for that feature will then be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. This option is available only for features, such as .NET Users and .NET Roles, that have configuration in both a configuration file and a database.
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When you select Configuration Read/Write for a feature, you unlock the feature's configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration changes for that feature will then be read from and written to Web.config files in sites or applications. This option is available only for features, such as .NET Users and .NET Roles, that have configuration in both a configuration file and a database.
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Configuration Read Only |
When you select Configuration Read Only for a feature, you lock the feature's configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be written to Web.config files in sites or applications; however, the application can continue to write to the database. This option is available only for features, such as .NET Users and .NET Roles, that have configuration in both a configuration file and a database.
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When you select Configuration Read Only for a feature, you lock the feature's configuration section(s) in the server-level configuration file. Configuration cannot be written to Web.config files in sites or applications; however, the application can continue to write to the database. This option is available only for features, such as .NET Users and .NET Roles, that have configuration in both a configuration file and a database.
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Reset All Delegation |
Resets the delegation states of all the features to states set at the parent level. At the server level, this sets the delegation states to the states as specified in the overrideModeDefault settings in the server-level configuration file. |
Resets the delegation states of all the features to states set at the parent level. At the server level, this sets the delegation states to the states as specified in the overrideModeDefault settings in the server-level configuration file. |
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Custom Site Delegation or Custom Application Delegation |
Not available. |
Opens the Custom Site Delegation feature page or the Custom Application Delegation feature page in which you can configure custom delegation states for an individual site or application. |