iiswsgi 0.2

Serve WSGI apps using IIS's modified FastCGI support.

Serving Python WSGI applications natively from IIS

The iiswsgi module implements a FastCGI to WSGI gateway that is compatible with IIS’s variation of the FastCGI protocol. It also provides utilities and helpers for building, packaging and deploying Microsoft Web Deploy packages through the Web Platform Installer.

Sample Package

The examplessample.msdeploy sub-directory can be used to build a sample MSDeploy package to be used with the web-pi.xml file as a custom Web Platform Installer feed to test or as a basis for building your own packages and custom feeds.

1. Exit the Web Platform Installer

   To make sure it uses the current version of the package and feed.

2. Build the package

   A script is provided to make this easier. Change to the directory containing this file in a cmd.exe prompt and run the following command:

   >C:\Python27\python.exe build_package.py

   That will build the package, clear the WebPI caches, and update the custom feed.

3. Point WebPI to the local feed

   Skip this if you’ve already done it before.

   Force WebPI to use the modified feed. Use the WebPI options screen to remove any previous Plone installer feeds and adding file:///C:/.../iiswsgi/examples/web-pi.xml replacing ... with the appropriate path.

4. Install the package in WebPI

   Use the search box in WebPI to search for iiswsgi, click Add then click the Install button below and follow the instructions.

IIS FastCGI

IIS’ implementation of the FastCGI protocol is not fully compliant. Most significantly, what is passed in on STDIN_FILENO is not a handle to an open socket but rather to a Windows named pipe. This names pipe does not support socket-like behavior, at least under Python. As such, the iiswsgi.server module extends flup’s WSGI to FCGI gateway to support using STDIN_FILENO opened twice, once each approximating the recv and send end of a socket as is specified in FastCGI.

IIS FastCGI Applications

Use IIS’s AppCmd.exe to install a new FastCGI application. You can find it at %ProgramFiles%\IIS Express\appcmd.exe for WebMatrix/IIS Express or %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe for IIS. Note that you need to replace %SystemDrive%\Python27\Scripts\test.ini with the full path to a Paste Deploy INI configuration file that defines the WSGI app and IISWSGI-Test with the name of your app as IIS will see it:

> appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi /+"[fullPath='%SystemDrive%\Python27\python.exe',arguments='-u %SystemDrive%\Python27\Scripts\iiswsgi-script.py -c %SystemDrive%\Python27\Scripts\test.ini',maxInstances='%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%',monitorChangesTo='C:\Python27\Scripts\test.ini']" /commit:apphost
> appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/handlers /+"[name='IISWSGI-Test',path='iiswsgi-test.fcgi',verb='*',modules='FastCgiModule',scriptProcessor='%SystemDrive%\Python27\python.exe|-u %SystemDrive%\Python27\Scripts\iiswsgi-script.py -c %SystemDrive%\Python27\Scripts\test.ini']" /commit:apphost

See the IIS FastCGI Reference for more details on how to configure IIS for FastCGI. Note that you cannot use environment variable in the monitorChangesTo argument, IIS will return an opaque 500 error.

Known Issues

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘\?C:...

I’ve run into this error on Windows 7 on two different machines and multiple installs, one OEM and one vanilla Windows 7 Extreme. When this happens, it seems to happen when the “Web Platform Installer” has been run, then exited, and then run again without rebooting the machine in between. To workaround this, you may have to reboot the machine. See the stack overflow question MS WebPI package runCommand not working in Manifest.xml for more information.

TODO building a MSDeploy package from an existing project

Changelog

0.1 - Unreleased

• Initial release