What does 'IISReset' do?

Question

On IIS 6, what does an IIS reset do?

Please compare to recycling an app pool and stopping and starting an ASP.NET web site.

If you replace a DLL or edit/rep

Answer 1

It operates on the whole IIS process tree, as opposed to just your application pools.

C:\>iisreset /?

IISRESET.EXE (c) Microsoft Corp. 1998-1999

Usage:
iisreset [computername]

    /RESTART            Stop and then restart all Internet services.
    /START              Start all Internet services.
    /STOP               Stop all Internet services.
    /REBOOT             Reboot the computer.
    /REBOOTONERROR      Reboot the computer if an error occurs when starting,
                        stopping, or restarting Internet services.
    /NOFORCE            Do not forcefully terminate Internet services if
                        attempting to stop them gracefully fails.
    /TIMEOUT:val        Specify the timeout value ( in seconds ) to wait for
                        a successful stop of Internet services. On expiration
                        of this timeout the computer can be rebooted if
                        the /REBOOTONERROR parameter is specified.
                        The default value is 20s for restart, 60s for stop,
                        and 0s for reboot.
    /STATUS             Display the status of all Internet services.
    /ENABLE             Enable restarting of Internet Services
                        on the local system.
    /DISABLE            Disable restarting of Internet Services
                        on the local system.