HTTP Configuration Utility

I tried to add a new Web Site in IIS 6.0 in Windows Server 2003 today and couldn't. The error registered in the Event Viewer by W3SVC service was:

Cannot register the URL prefix 'http://x.x.x.x:80/' for site 'xxxxxxxx'. The IP address for the site is not in the HTTP.sys IP listen list. The site has been deactivated. The data field contains the error number.

Ordinarily this should not have been a problem. But this server also runs Apache HTTP Server and IIS has a problem co-existing with it.

Although each server runs websites bound to different ip addresses on the same network interface, for whatever reason, IIS apparently tries to bind to all available addresses despite instructions to bind to a specific address. I'm not sure if this is the exact reason or something else since I had researched this a long time ago when I was trying to install and run SharePoint Services on IIS on this server when already running Apache HTTP Server. Should have written it down then. :( The references at the end of the article lists a KB article that seems to explain the same thing. So it's probably true.

Anyway, to get around this problem, there is a command line tool (of course, why bother having a GUI for something so advanced, since all advanced administrators are supposed to hate GUI anyway) called HttpCfg.exe (Http Configuration Utility).

- Install SUPTOOLS.MSI from the Windows Server 2003 Installation CD.
- Start cmd (Command Prompt). Ensure HttpCfg.exe is in the PATH variable (obvious mistake usually),

> httpcfg set iplisten -i x.x.x.x

- If the above command succeeds, the following message is returned:

HttpSetServiceConfiguration completed with 0

- To check if the ip address was added successfully, use the following command.

> httpcfg query iplisten

- The IP inclusion list (HTTP.SYS) is read at during startup of the HTTP service, so it needs to be restarted. Of course, it's NOT listed in Services list in Control Panel. Need to do it from the command prompt

> net stop http /y
> net start w3svc

- Now I was able to start my web site in IIS.

References:
Here is a KB article about how it gets complicated when you expect too much out of few resources.

Setting metabase property DisableSocketPooling has no effect
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=813368