Migrating dotnetnuke from development to test server

2
votes

I am a newbie with DotNetNuke and have been stumbling on how to deploy from the development server to the deployment server. For starters my development and deployment servers are one and the same machine. Here are the steps that I did:

DNN Setup

  1. Downloaded DNN using WebMatrix.
  2. Launched DNN and proceeded with the installation wizard, which is basically just testing the environment and then creating the DNN database.
  3. After the wizard's installation launching DNN will now proceed to the Getting Started page
  4. Added "localhost/dnn" in the site alias list

Moving to ISS

  1. In IIS I added application (folder) DNN in the web root
  2. I copied all the files from the original webmatrix path to the dnn folder in c:\inetpub\webroot making sure that the file/folder hierarchies are the same

Result:

When launching DNN using my browser I am directed to the installation wizard page instead of the Getting Started page. What am I missing?

Thanks!

2
dotnetnuke

2 Answers

1
votes
  1. Confirm that the permissions on the folder containing DNN are the same on your test server as they are on your development server. (I give Network Service read/write and IUsr Read/Execute)
  2. Confirm that the application pool running your application has the proper identity (Network Service is suggested) and is running the proper .NET Framework version; based upon your question, I think you are set on this.
  3. Gain access to your web.config file. You will see a ConnectionStrings section. You probably need to update the connection strings.
    • If your test server runs off of a different database than your dev server, figure out the connection string of your test server and update your connection string accordingly
      • You may be able to restore a .BAK file of your DB to your test server
      • If you do this, you will probably need to (in SSMS) edit your Portal Alias table to include the host name that you are using in your test server environment. Examples: Maybe you access the site via localhost/ on your dev environment, but you access to test site via test.Ronald.com? test.Ronald.com would be your PortalAlias
    • If your test server runs off the same database server as your dev server, it sounds like you need to open up access in firewalls so that your test server has connectivity to your dev database

A word of advice

Once you get it running, you will be making changes to each database separately (assuming your test site and dev site use different DB Servers). This sync issue can be a royal pain with DNN, as your page structures, module assignments, html module contents, installed modules/extensions will get out of sync. While restoring backups is nice, it is not a very good long-term solution. I recommend database-syncing tools

0
votes

The problem is most likely a problem with DNN not being able to find the Database. If it can't find the database, it will run the wizard in order to create one.