The BITS Compact Server provides the following customizable features:
- Programmatic ways to expose files for download
- Authenticated and encrypted downloads
- Remote management functionality
These features enable Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) to manage virtual machine hosts without an agent, and also offer options to system administrators for datacenter automation using other compatible applications.
BITS Compact Server API
The BITS Compact Server API consists of two interfaces ICompactServerSession and ICompactServerUrlGroup. The first interface is used to create URL groups. The second interface is used to add URLs to the URL group and to configure some properties. There is no user interface.
By using the BITS Compact Server API, you will configure the controlling application to do the following tasks:
- CoCreate ICompactServer.
- Call ICompactServer::CreateUrlGroup.
- Call ICompactServerUrlGroup::SetAuthentication.
- Call ICompactServerUrlGroup::AddUrl.
For detailed information about the BITS Compact Server API, see Background Intelligent Transfer Service at
You can also configure BITS Compact Server by using the WMI provider API and WMI Powershell cmdlets. See the BITS Compact Server Remote Management section for information.
Logging
If you contact Microsoft Support, the support technician may ask you to send logs to Microsoft. For debugging, BITS Compact Server creates a log file in %windir%\System32\LogFiles\CompactServer. To enable logging, set the following values as directed by the support technician in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\CompactServer:
LogFileFlags
LogFileSize
LogFileMinMemory
Remote Management of the BITS Compact Server
See the BITS Compact Server Remote Management section for information about remote management of file transfers on the server and on the client.