Configuration History <configHistory>

The <configHistory> element defines the settings for the built-in IIS configuration history feature, which keeps a running history of changes to your configuration files. This history is especially useful for recovering from mistakes made when manually editing your configuration files.

For example, if you were making changes to your ApplicationHost.config file and the changes contained invalid syntax, end users would see the following error when browsing to your Web site:

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

To resolve the issue, you would only need to copy the ApplicationHost.config from the history folder into your %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config folder in order to restore your server to operational state.

The <configHistory> element is included in the default installation of IIS 7.

There is no user interface for setting the configuration history options for IIS 7. For examples of how to set the configuration history options programmatically, see the Code Samples section of this document.

None.

The following configuration sample enables the configuration history feature, sets the path of the history files to %SystemDrive%\inetpub\history, sets the maximum number of history files to 50, and sets the history interval to 5 minutes.

<system.applicationHost>
   <configHistory enabled="true"
      path="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\history"
      maxHistories="50"
      period="00:05:00" />
</system.applicationHost>

The following code samples enable configuration history for IIS 7, and configure the following options: the path of the history files is set to %SystemDrive%\inetpub\history, the maximum number of history files is set to 50, and the time interval for checking the configuration settings is set to 5 minutes.

appcmd.exe set config -section:system.applicationHost/configHistory /enabled:"True" /commit:apphost
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.applicationHost/configHistory /path:"%SystemDrive%\inetpub\history" /commit:apphost
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.applicationHost/configHistory /maxHistories:"50" /commit:apphost
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.applicationHost/configHistory /period:"00:05:00" /commit:apphost

using System;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Web.Administration;

internal static class Sample
{
   private static void Main()
   {
      using (ServerManager serverManager = new ServerManager())
      {
         Configuration config = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration();

         ConfigurationSection configHistorySection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/configHistory");
         configHistorySection["enabled"] = true;
         configHistorySection["path"] = @"%SystemDrive%\inetpub\history";
         configHistorySection["maxHistories"] = 50;
         configHistorySection["period"] = TimeSpan.Parse("00:05:00");

         serverManager.CommitChanges();
      }
   }
}

Imports System
Imports System.Text
Imports Microsoft.Web.Administration

Module Sample

   Sub Main()
      Dim serverManager As ServerManager = New ServerManager
      Dim config As Configuration = serverManager.GetApplicationHostConfiguration

      Dim configHistorySection As ConfigurationSection = config.GetSection("system.applicationHost/configHistory")
      configHistorySection("enabled") = True
      configHistorySection("path") = "%SystemDrive%\inetpub\history"
      configHistorySection("maxHistories") = 50
      configHistorySection("period") = TimeSpan.Parse("00:05:00")

      serverManager.CommitChanges()
   End Sub

End Module

var adminManager = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager');
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST";

var configHistorySection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/configHistory", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST");
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("enabled").Value = true;
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("path").Value = "%SystemDrive%\\inetpub\\history";
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("maxHistories").Value = 50;
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("period").Value = "00:05:00";

adminManager.CommitChanges();

Set adminManager = WScript.CreateObject("Microsoft.ApplicationHost.WritableAdminManager")
adminManager.CommitPath = "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST"

Set configHistorySection = adminManager.GetAdminSection("system.applicationHost/configHistory", "MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST")
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("enabled").Value = True
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("path").Value = "%SystemDrive%\inetpub\history"
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("maxHistories").Value = 50
configHistorySection.Properties.Item("period").Value = "00:05:00"

adminManager.CommitChanges()