Configure Pilot Program Management Using ARR
Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista
This topic describes how to modify your URL rewrite rules and use Application Request Routing (ARR) to route only a subset of users to your pilot site. ARR can be used to target specific users to your pilot site, to limit and manage the amount of traffic that is routed to your pilot site, or to manage and mitigate risks associated with a pilot site.
Before you can use user profiles to route specific requests to your pilot site, you must have IIS 7 installed on a computer that is running Windows Server® 2008 or newer, ARR and its dependent modules, and a minimum of two content servers with working sites and applications.
Change URL Rewrite Rules to Route Requests Based on User Profiles
You can change your URL rewrite rules by using the UI or by using the command line.
To use the UI to change URL rewrite rules to route requests that are based on user profiles
Open IIS Manager.
In the Connections pane, expand the server node and then expand the Server Farms node. Select your pilot site server farm.
In the Server Farm pane, double-click Routing Rules.
On the Routing Rules page, in the Actions pane, click URL Rewrite….
On the URL Rewrite page, select the URL rewrite rule for your pilot site server farm.
In the Actions pane, click Edit….
On the Edit Rule page, click Add Conditions.
In the expanded view of the Conditions section, click Add.
In the Add Condition dialog box, specify the conditions that you want to use to route specific users to your pilot site.
For example, if you want to route users on Internet Explorer to your pilot site, select {HTTP_USER_AGENT} from the Condition input list and enter *MSIE* in the Pattern box. If you want to route users with .NET 3.5 to your pilot site, select {HTTP_USER_AGENT} from the Condition input list and enter *.NET CLR 3.5* in the Pattern box.
Click OK.
Repeat steps 8 – 10 until you have added all the conditions that should apply for your pilot site.
On the Edit Rule page, clear the Stop processing of subsequent rules check box.
Note: When you clear this check box, URL rewrite processes rules in the order in which they are listed. Verify that your rules are configured and listed in the order in which you intend to route requests.
Click Apply.
To use the command line to change URL rewrite rules to route requests that are based on user profiles
Open a command prompt with administrator user rights, and navigate to %windir%\system32\inetsrv.
To change your pilot site’s rewrite rule to check for specific conditions, enter the following command:
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/rewrite/globalRules /+"[name='pilotSiteRule'].conditions.[input='{queryString}',pattern='*pattern*']" /commit:apphost
where pilotSiteRule is the name of the rewrite rule for your pilot site, {queryString} is the selected query string condition, and *pattern* is the specified pattern to match.
To clear the Stop processing of subsequent rules setting for your pilot site, enter the following command:
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/rewrite/globalRules /[name='pilotSiteRule'].stopProcessing:"False" /commit:apphost
where pilotSiteRule is the name of the rewrite rule for your pilot site.