MicrosoftFWIW, I'll note for readers here that while this post is shown here with a Sep 2019 date, the content is actually a re-post of the author's original blog entry from 2016 at https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/friis/2016/08/25/setup-iis-with-url-rewrite-as-a-reverse-proxy-for-real-world-apps/. And though the comments on that one are closed, there are some useful ones (from others and the author) which readers here may want to note.
And as we CAN comment here, I would like to ask the author, Paul: why did you not take the chance to revise this post to clarify how one needs to install ARR for this to work? Anyone proceeding to the step to click on/add the "reverse proxy" rule will be prompted that they must install ARR first. You hadn't indicated this in the first article (or the next 3 parts), but you did acknowledge it in later comments. Is it perhaps that when you wrote the article, you had ARR installed and so didn't notice this as a requirement? That would be understandable.
But it would be helpful for people to know of this requirement/prerequisite, when reading this post (and the older version of it).
Some may argue, "since IIS tells you, why should the article bother?" But the point is that some will read the article (perhaps on a mobile device) and later go back to try it (to tell others that "it's possible"), only to find this new, unexpected requirement. Perhaps they are not in a position to install new software, or they may worry that ARR is a large addition to IIS that could change its behavior in other ways.
I'm just pointing all this out for the sake of other readers who find it, but I would plead with Paul to consider adding mention of the AR requirement in the article, either near the top or at that point where the prompt would appear for those who don't have it installed.
Finally, if anyone may know of a solution for IIS that enables simple reverse proxy capabilities (without requiring ARR), I'd love to hear of that. And I'd be ok if it was an add-on. Again one may wonder, "then why not accept ARR as the needed add-on?", but the point is that that does a lot MORE than just add reverse proxy capability. If some add-on did just that, I and others may consider it first over having to go the ARR route.
All that said, thanks, Paul, for the effort on this and the other parts of the article series.
