Modifying non-web-related server settings via ASP

Possible?

[digitalv]

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to change the server name, IP address, toggle between manual IP settings and DHCP, etc. and other server-based functions through ASP or ASP.NET on Windows 2003 servers?

If not, is there a component that does this?

I'm building a network appliance and it would be nice if I could get 100% of the administration, including physical server settings, all on the web pages.

[plumsauce]

Possible? Yes. Right down to the registry.

Safe? Maybe. Possibly. But still really, really scary.

The required techniques range from custom code, to activex objects, to shelling out to commandline tools. It all depends on what setting you want to change. But, *everything* can be changed. You just have to give the web interface enough juice and capabilities. Oh, and you have to know where to effect the change.

[digitalv]

Ok, so how would I find out how to do it?

[carguy84]

What exactly are you trying to monitor/change, that might help out a bit as there are different ways to interface with various components in Windows. If it's administration stuff, I'd just enable RDP via IIS and be done with it.

Chip-

[digitalv]

Basically I'm building a "network appliance" of sorts, and my goal is for the user to be able to do everything they'll ever need to change without having to log into the machine. This includes:

Stopping/Starting Services
Rebooting
Changing the Server IP address/subnetmask/gateway/DNS settings (or toggle between static IP and DHCP)
etc.
Changing Passwords for Active Directory users

I've been researching and experimenting with this all day and it looks like the winmgmts object can do everything I need to do, but one thing I haven't found in there yet is how to display the current IP address information for a network card. I figured out how to change it, but not how to display it. Anyone have any ideas?

[carguy84]

If the server is going to be hosting the software, it's easy: Request.Servervariables("remote_addr")

If it's another machine, you can do it any number of ways, but to monitor the box, you're going to need to know either the IP address of the box or the name before you connect to it, so either you already have the IP or you get it via WMI.

Chip-