Good information in the thread.
Just my two cents.
Of course it is impossible to cover every installation scenario, but when writing documentation you must write to the lowest common denominator, especially with an installation guide.
It should be assumed in such a guide that the person knows nothing about DNN and how it works.
I was also wondering about the zip and it is still not clear to me what's going to happen to my custom directories, etc.

What happens is that when the application is first installed, we generate unique encryption and validation keys to protect your site content, and passwords. After that whenever the application restarts we know that it's either a standard application restart (i.e. after a recycle) or an attempt to upgrade, so don't touch the keys (note: during install we also write a new key InstallationDate , which stores the installation date to shortcircuit this check). This is why it's vital to keep these keys safe.

As the web.config contains settings that work application wide, it oftens changes between versions (ie in 3.2 we abstracted the menu out into a provider so a new <navigationControl> node was added), so that's why we ask that you backup your existing web.config, rename the release.config, and then copy your key settings back in. We did try to automate this process i.e. merge new web.config changes into an existing web.config file, but were not able to get a 100% reliable solution for past releases (as users add their own custom config details). We continue to work on this , and hope to soon have code as part of the install/upgrade routine that will remove this annoying but necessary requirement.

Cathal

Hi Cathal,

Could you provide any advice? - I reached the end of the video tutorial and came across an interesting "feature" so I wondered if you could confim a few things for me and best practice before I release the free video.

I've set the auto upgrade feature in the web.config to false.

Testing this on a localhost install, this works fine, you receive the DotNetNuke Under Construction page.

Testing with a live website, when you navigate to the URL you receive a security login popup box asking you for a username and password. - Of course if you are a visitor to the website, you are just going to click on Cancel. - Upon doing this you receive a web.config file error page.

If you then click on refresh, V3.2 has actually installed and everything is working correctly. - have you come across this?

The next question is a best practice question.

In the video I suggest creating a default.html file which lists your contact details and a maintenance message while you are uploading the files, the reason for this is that even with auto install set to false - suppose you begin uploading the "admin" folder contents, while doing this if you receive a visitor to your website the home page will display your skin but it will contain errors and not display any content. - Can I confirm that this is correct?

At what point does the autoinstall = false pick up the fact that there is a new version of DNN waiting to be installed and triggered?

So based on the 2 points should the tutorial walk through the upgrade using the Default.html under construction page as a way to prevent users accidentally triggering the upgrade process & then when you are ready to trigger the upgrade simply upload the default.aspx file as the last file & then visit your webpage to trigger it.

(based on some servers might throw up the security login box as with my server when autoinstall is set to false)

& then to finish the tutorial as a separate section demonstrate how the autoinstall=false section works & how you can configure it, with details that it may throw up a security login box on some hosting providers

I've been trying to work this out over the past 2 days, but could do with some advice for best practice before I release a video tutorial, perhaps you would like to view the video before I release it?

Many thanks,

The popup you're seeing isn't caused by dotnetnuke, it's likely to be a windows permissions issue i.e. the page at Install/UnderConstruction.htm is missing the permissions for the anonymous webuser. Note:this file is automatically created for you if it's missing, so that may be your permissions problem i.e. you have read, but not modify permissions.

Theres an inherent problem in stopping asp.net 1.1 sites, because when you copy a file into the bin folder, or affect the web.config/global.asax file(s), an application recycle automatically happens (this can mean an upgrade cycle can kick in before all the files are transferred e.g. the contents of the bin folder have copied, but the contents of the providers folder haven't - and this contains the database update scripts). In asp.net 2.0 properly stopping an application  is made possible through a new file,app_offline.htm, which if dropped into the root of your site, will automatically force an application unload, and will not allow a new .net application to start until this file is removed.

From memory, our current solution determines if an application upgrade happens during startup by comparing the versions of the dotnetnuke.dll, with the version of the application in the database. If they differ (i.e. the dotnetnuke.dll is higher), then it goes to the install/upgrade logic. At that point, if autoinstall is set to false, it redirects to the underconstruction.htm page, which allows the user to finish uploading the remaining files. Once all the files have been uploaded the user can then set autoinstall to true and then hit the site (or the install.aspx page) to do an update, and be certain that all your files have been transferred.

Cathal

Thanks Cathal,

I thought it must be the server settings, I will check with the hosting provider to see what they say. The underconstruction.htm file exists.

That makes sense, so ideally you would want to upload the dotnetnuke.dll as the first file so that DNN switches to the underconstruction.htm page immediately. - This way you wouldn't have to mess about with a default.htm 'under construction' page.

Many thanks, I will keep you all posted with the progress, hopefully it won't be too long until I release the video.

This is the best thread yet... I have always been scared to death to upgrade and I just realized I was lucky a few times.

 

I think I have it down to a tee...But please let me know if I am wrong.

 

First I have MaximumAsp as my host and they always do backups everyday on our sql server...which is a plus.

 

On an upgrade:

 

A. My Local machine

 

1. I download the new zip and unzip it to a new folder.

 

2. Then I copy over all files to my DNN folder I current have on my computer

 

But, I keep

 

a. my portals folder, I keep my _default folder in this too..just in case I made modifications to the default.css file

b. keep my app_GlobalResources folder,(different languages I added)

c. I keep my 400,401,403-3,404,500 (Because I modified these to show my logo and not a DNN error.)

d. Keep my fav.ico ( I modified this to show our logo)

e. Then I download my Current web.config file...because the machine keys changed on the server when I originally installed the application

f. Then I compare the new release.config file to the web.config file I have. I copy everything from the web.config that needs to be in the new release.config file. Then I rename the web.config file to back.web.config and save the release.config to web.config.

g. One thing you could do is to write comments in the web.config when you make changes...Example: I added speerio file manager to my modules and needed to change the web.config file. So I wrote comments in the web.config file to make sure I knew about the change I made to this file. This way it will be easy to copy changes to your new web.config file.

h. If you didn't make any changes to the web.config file, then you will only need to copy these exact lines

    <add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=yourserver;Database=yourusername;uid=yourusername;pwd=sqlpassword;" />
    <add key="MachineValidationKey" value="whatever key is generated here" />
    <add key="MachineDecryptionKey" value="whatever key is generated here" />

 

Then I need to get the upload process started.

 

Do this at night time so you can prepare yourself for any difficulties getting this process done or you don't want your site to be down for 5 minutes during the day.

 

3. If you don't want anyone to hit your site during update...just delete the dotnetnuke.dll from the bin folder.

 

4. Then start to upload all of the folders one by one.

I usually start off with the bin folder and just upload all of the files except the dotnetnuke.dll (I will install this file last)

I will then have all folders uploaded.

 

5. Then I upload all of the files and save the web.config for last.

 

6. Now I go back and add the dotnetnuke.dll to the bin folder.

 

7. Now I need to call MaximumAsp and have them give the web.config file IUSER - Modify permissions on that file.

I need to do this or I can't get DNN to upgrade successfully

 

8. Now remember to have all your permissions set on the server (give write access to Bin, Desktop Modules, and Portals.)

 

9. You will need to contact your host to give write permission to the application pool's user - your IWAM user. Which should already be set the first time you installed DNN.

I hope this helps and I hope someone can let me know if I have anything wrong in here or left anything out. I have been do this since day one and I have always downloaded my web.config file from the server first. I didn't realize I was suppose to keep the machine keys. Lucky me!!!

Hi Cathal,

I have been trying to upgrade our dotnetnuke installation from 3.1 to 3.2. Originally, I also encountered the error that was mentioned at the beginning of this thread. That was fixed when I followed your advice and copied back the connection string and encryption key entries to the new web.config. My problem now is that when I try to login, the application breaks and the login module produces an "object instance not set" error. Can you help me out? I have been trying to upgrade since last week. I have read the installation guide, watched the video, followed the instructions on this thread. If I can't upgrade then I will have to place a fresh 3.2 installation and develop everything from scratch.

Kind Regards,

rpasion

ok, here we go, I've finally completed the video, it's been hard work, but I hope you will find it useful. - It's available completely for free.

It will be available officially in issue 4 of the magazine, so it is currently hidden on the website, but if you follow this link you can access the page and download the video.

How to upgrade DotNetNuke on a live website

I would really appreciate any feedback, especially before the video is officially released.

Hope it's of use,

Lee

Hello Lee

dnncreative wrote:

ok, here we go, I've finally completed the video, it's been hard work, but I hope you will find it useful. - It's available completely for free. It will be available officially in issue 4 of the magazine, so it is currently hidden on the website, but if you follow this link you can access the page and download the video. How to upgrade DotNetNuke on a live website I would really appreciate any feedback, especially before the video is officially released. Hope it's of use, Lee

Thank you so much for taking the time to create such an informative and easy to understand video.  I for one found it to be most helpful and I feel much more confident regarding upgrading.
Excellent work.

BTW what is the FTP software package you are using. My ftp software has just expired and I need to renew it before upgrading. I thought that the one you used in the video look good and easy to use.

Thanks again.

Hi Lynn,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I've just been away for a long weekend! - I'm glad you found the video useful, it's always good to hear that people find the videos useful.

For the FTP, if you go to this page:

http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Software/FTP_freeware/

The software I've used is the AceFTP.

Thanks,

FYI: we've just released 3.2.1 and 4.0.1 (These are both stabilisation releases with a number of key bug fixes.). The DotNetNuke Installation Guide.pdf in the documentation download has also nearly doubled in size to 63 pages, to address some of the areas of documentation weakness raised in this, and other threads (we do try to listen and respond :). As usual all the new releases can be found @ http://www.dotnetnuke.com/tabid/125/default.aspx

Cathal

Hi Cathal,

The new documentation looks really good, congrats to the core team for all of their hard work.

I've noticed a couple of key areas that may help some people:

If you are using version 3.2.1 with ASP.NET 2.0 and your website hosting provider is running under Medium Trust, you need to make some additional adjustments to your web.config file, you can read about these on page 18 of the new documentation.

If you are using version 4.0.1 and your website hosting provider is running under Medium Trust you can find details regarding this on page 35 of the new documentation. - The documentation states to use the development.config file instead of the release.config file if you are running under Medium Trust. (The development.config file is not included in the install.zip download file, it's included in the source.zip/website folder download file.) (I haven't tested v4 yet, but thought it may send people in the right direction)

- Also Issue 4 of the magazine has now been released which includes several videos which may help:

Installing and Configuring DotNetNuke:

How to adjust your Nameserver settings - Free

How to install DotNetNuke 3.2 to a website hosting provider Video Tutorial – Free
(30 min)

How to upgrade DotNetNuke from v3.x to v3.2 Video Tutorial  – Free
(20 min)

How to configure DotNetNuke before installation Video Tutorial
(24min)


DotNetNuke Modules:

How to install a module to DotNetNuke Video Tutorial - Free
(3min)

Thanks,

I just had the email from Lee Sykes from dnncreative.com announcing the release of 3.2.1 and 4.0.1. It contained links to some free video tutorials.

Here's one on how to do an upgrade and it's great. Watch it and I think you'll know what to do with the zip file etc. One mistake I managed to do though was that I forgot to transfer the value for ObjectQualifier from the old config file to the new one. That's fixed now so I'm up and running.

http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/DNNTutorialsforBeginners/HowtoupgradeDotNetNuke/tabid/202/Default.aspx

Thanks to dnncreative.

Glad to hear you found the video useful, I will add the object qualifier tip as one of the notes on the upgrade tutorial page.

Many thanks,