Streamlined Upgrades from 4.6.2 and Later 

Well after following a similar practice for upgrading my DotNetNuke sites since pre DNN 4.4.1 days I have just learned of a very helpful new feature for those upgrading from 4.6.2 or later versions.  Starting with 4.6.2 a new function was added to the DotNetNuke core known as XML Merge, which removes the need for you to manually update the web.config file on each and every upgrade.  This takes the complicated manual merge process and reduces an upgrade to two simple steps.  I will detail these steps below.

NOTE: This ONLY works for DNN 4.6.2 and later systems.  DO NOT use this method if you are on a version prior to 4.6.2!  If you are on a version prior to 4.6.2 please use my "Upgrading to DotNetNuke 4.8.3 from 4.x" article.

Backup Existing Site

Even with the XML merge functionality it is very important to take a full backup of the website and database, just incase something doesn't work correctly during the upgrade.  If you are unsure of the process to backup your site, please be sure to read my blog How to Backup a DNN Site.

Upgrade Site

This is where things have been amazingly simplified. To perform an upgrade from 4.6.2 or later to the most current version simply download the UPGRADE package for the new version of DotNetNuke from the DotNetNuke.com website.  You MUST use the upgrade package for this process.  Once you have downloaded the package, simply unzip it over your existing DNN installation.  This will update all DotNetNuke core files and prepare you to install the upgrade.

Now, simply navigate to http://www.mysite.com/install/install.aspx?mode=install and you will be triggering the upgrade just like normal.  All needed web.config changes will be merged and your site will be upgraded.  If you encounter an under contruction page, simply try the URL again.

Conclusion

This new functionality makes it really easy to upgrade your DotNetNuke sites, and is a great time saver for those of us upgrading large numbers of DNN websites.  Please note that this process does NOT update any modules that might have new releases so you must do that via a separate process!

Posted by Mitchel on Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tags: DotNetNuke, Tutorials
 

Comments

Thanks Mitchel,

I saw Charles' post today, but I wasn't sure from his post whether he was saying you could just copy the upgrade over your site and run the install. I see from your post that this is in fact the case and that's awesome. What a timesaver.

By Don Worthley on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 7:52 AM

I was under the impression that using the upgrades was fine for minor version, but that it was a good practice to use the full install for major version upgrades because of SQL updates. Does the XmlMerge resolve that issue, or am I misunderstanding a concept somewhere?

By Scott Allender on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 8:02 AM

Yes, this change in the core makes it just fine to use the upgrade version for major releases as well, AS long as you are coming from 4.6.2 or later to the current version.

now, with using the upgrade package, you might need to upgrade a few modules once the upgrade is done, but that is easy!

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 8:04 AM

Hi Mitchell, I too saw Charles' post (as well as your reply about running off to update your blog -- I guess you weren't kidding :-). Thanks to both of you. I don't know how this GREAT feature slipped past me. I guess I was always too nervous about using the upgrade pkg and never really looked at it in detail. Today I upgraded two DNN installs, one with 17 portals under it (of course I did a backup first!). Both upgrades went without a ripple!!! The thing I like most and always forget to do I don't have to worry aboutany more -- resetting auto-upgrade to false. Thanks.

Chuck R.

By CARizzio on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 2:29 PM

Chuck,

Don't feel bad, if you look at Michael Washington's blog he didn't know about it either....

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 6:54 PM

Thanks for letting us know. I was just about to do a test run on DNN 4.8.3 and will try this out.

It is too bad the DNN's release process doesn't do a better job of notifying its customers. This feature has been available since October and few people knew it.

Thanks for making this public.
/DaveS

By David Snow on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 7:01 AM

Do we actually need to click on http://www.mysite.com/install/install.aspx?mode=install or will an access to the home page still cause this to happen?

/DaveS

By David Snow on Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 4:43 AM

You will need to go to install/install.aspx if you have auto upgrade set to false, which I HIGHLY recommend.

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Sunday, June 01, 2008 at 4:49 PM

<i>now, with using the upgrade package, you might need to upgrade a few modules once the upgrade is done, but that is easy! </i>

Easy for you but as a newbie I am not sure how to upgrade a module....Can anyone help? Thanks.

By Dantv on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 7:19 PM

If you have a module listed in Module Definitions that needs an update, you can download the update from DotNetNuke.com, then simply upload it via the Module Definitions page from the "Install Module" option.

By mitchel.sellers@gmail.com on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 7:25 PM

Mitch, how about turning on the app_offline.htm file first before unzipping... wouldn't that still be a good first step to make sure that it's "on" before you unzip the upgrade package over the existing site?

By Moore Creative Design & Development on Thursday, June 05, 2008 at 4:10 AM

Hello,

I have done plenty of upgrade process these last years/months, without any problem. And today, I tried to migrate from 4.8.2 to 4.8.3
Not so easy, I have the same error message, always and always.... Any idea ??

DotNetNuke Configuration Error
Domain Name "mydomain.com/Install" Does Not Exist In The Database

DotNetNuke supports multiple portals from a single database/codebase. It accomplishes this by converting the URL of the client browser Request to a valid PortalID in the Portals database table. The following steps describe the process:
{...}

DV FX

By Declic Video on Monday, June 09, 2008 at 12:51 PM

Comments from the following blog entry: DotNetNuke 4.8.4 - Install/Upgrade Instructions, located at: http://www.mitchelsellers.com/Blogs/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/220/DotNetNuke-484--InstallUpgrade-Instructions.aspx

By Mitchel's Personal Web Portal on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:54 AM

Comments from the following blog entry: DotNetNuke 4.8.4 - Install/Upgrade Instructions, located at: http://www.mitchelsellers.com/Blogs/tabid/54/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/220/DotNetNuke-484--InstallUpgrade-Instructions.aspx

By Mitchel's Personal Web Portal on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:54 AM
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