If you wish to install EPiServer 5 CMS on your Windows Server 2008 you can do it in two ways: manually and by using EPiServer Manager.  By saying it can be installed by the Manager I don’t mean it is so straight forward. Ruwen wrote a couple of articles about EPiServer on Vista both manual and manager installations which I advise you to read. Installation on WS 2008 is almost identical to what he described there so we have a bit of redundancy but that doesn’t hurt.

Preliminary steps

EPiServer Manager requires metabase that is not installed by default on IIS7. Metabase can be installed adding IIS6 compatibility mode. Follow these steps to install IIS 6 compatibility:

1. Open programs and features and select “turn windows …..”

2. Click on web server IIS

3. Click on Add Role services

4. Check IIS 6 Management compatibility and install the feature 

Manager Installation

1. Create new .cmd file and copy following text in it : start http://download.episerver.com/ClickOnceManager/EPiServerManager.application#EPiServerManager.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=58dc57a1c62403a2, processorArchitecture=msil

2. Save and run it “as Administrator”. It will install EPiServer Manager. Close the manager.

3. Create new .cmd file and copy Following text in it "C:\Users\[YOUR USER HERE]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\EPiServer\EPiServer CMS Manager.appref-ms"

4. Run it “as Administrator”. It will start the manager

5. In the menu click “Action” --> “Install” and install new EPiServer Site

6. When the site is installed open IIS7 Manager

7. In the sites node right-click on your episerver newly installed site and choose remove

8. Restart IIS

9. In the IIS7 Manager choose “Add web Site”

10. Point to your episerver installation folder and configure bindings appropriately

11. Open Command prompt and execute following line %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd migrate config "[YOUR SITE NAME HERE]/"

12. Edit web.config file and add following attribute in the modules node runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"

13. Open browser and navigate to your newly installed EPiServer website.