IIS 6.0: Web Site Identification Numbers Are Not Incremental

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

When you create a new Web site through the Internet Services Manager (ISM) in Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, an identification number for that site is automatically generated and stored in the metabase. The number is based on the name of the Web site. In earlier versions, the Web site identification numbers are incremental.

The new design ensures that all IIS 6.0 servers in a Web farm have a good chance of generating the same site identification numbers for sites with the same name.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. If you have administration scripts that depend on incremental site identification numbers, you can force IIS 6.0 to use incremental numbers by adding a registry key. To do this:

1. Click Start, click Run. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetMgr\Parameters
3. Click the Parameters key. On the Edit menu, click New Dword Value.
4. Type IncrementalSiteIDCreation for the name.
5. Double-click the name of the new value.
6. Change Value Data to 1, and then click OK.
7. To enable the change, restart the IIS services.

Note When you remotely administer another IIS server, the value of the registry key of the local server is used to determine how the site identification number is generated on the remote server.