Added the second Web Front End (WFE2) to the farm yesterday and followed my steps to ensuring that both are identical.
- Let WSS Web Services check the config_db and create the new web applications on WFE2. Looks good.
- Checked for custom IIS configurations (Additional Host Headers, bound IPs, SSL configurations, etc.) Nope, not there as anticipated.
- Retrieved the portable IIS backup from WFE1 and placed in the c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\metaback folder on WFE2.
- Opened IIS Manager on WFE2 and restored the new backup. Woo Hoo! (to quote Bill), everything is just like the first one!
Well, not quite. . . and in some cases, that is bad!
The first bad news: All the bound IP addresses are bound here too! Only, this server is not using those IP addresses. It would be if I had set up Windows Load Balancing on WFE1 before creating the backup and now configured WFE2 to participate in the cluster. But, probably you will be using hardware load balancing or you may just be moving the WFE role, so we will be changing these bound IP addresses on WFE2.
Bad news number 2: About those certificates. IIS now knows all about the certificates and is configured to use them with SSL. Is SSL actually working. Well, NO! I still have to export the certificates from WFE1 and install them on WFE2. DUH!
The information about the certs is in the backup but not the certs themselves since they are contained in the certificate stores of the individual machines. Better back those up now along with the IIS metabase. Oh yeah, and document the passwords used in the certificate export (You must have the private keys.) because we may all be wearing canvas jackets with really long sleeves by the time the next guy needs them.
Now, I am off to replacing the web.config and other files in the file system directories on WFE2.
Life goes on. . .