You are on page 1of 6

07/14/10

DotNetNuke Corp.
155 Bovet Road, Suite 201
San Mateo, CA 94402
www.dotnetnuke.com
650.288.3150
These instructions assume you are installing the DotNetNuke INSTALL package.
Instructions for installing other packages are similar but beyond the scope of this If your goal is to evaluate the
document. Typically, installation should take no more than 10-15 minutes. If you features available in
encounter errors during the installation, double check the prerequisites to ensure you DotNetNuke, we recommend
have the required hardware and software available. you attend an online
demonstration webinar hosted
If your goal is to evaluate the features available in DotNetNuke, we recommend you by DotNetNuke Corp.
attend an online demonstration. You can find a list of upcoming DotNetNuke
demonstration webinars at DotNetNuke.com.

You can also see a listing of DotNetNuke Training options by visiting our website to see how our free and paid training can fit
your needs.

The first step in the installation process is identifying your hardware and software environment. The common configurations
are:

Configuration A: Laptop or Desktop Computer

Web Server: Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 desktop computer with ASP.NET 3.5sp1 or newer and IIS 5.1 or newer
Database Server: SQL Server 2005/2008, SQL Express 2005/2008 running on the same computer

Configuration B: Laptop or Desktop Computer with a Remote SQL Server

Web Server: Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 desktop computer with ASP.NET 3.5sp1 or newer and IIS 5.1 or newer
Database Server: SQL Server 2005/2008 running on a remote server

Configuration C: A Single Server Running Both IIS and SQL

Web Server: Windows Server 2003/2008 server computer with ASP.NET 3.5sp1 or newer and IIS 6.0 or newer
Database Server: SQL Server 2005/2008 running on the same computer

Configuration D: A Web Server and a Separate SQL Server

Web Server: Windows Server 2003/2008 server computer with ASP.NET 3.5sp1 or newer and IIS 6.0 or newer
Database Server: SQL Server 2005/2008 running on a remote server

DotNetNuke is server-based software which requires some IT technical skills for installation. After installation, these IT
technical skills are not necessary and anyone with a web browser can quickly learn DotNetNuke. If you require a local
installation of DotNetNuke and do not have experience installing and configuring a server-based web application on
Windows, we recommend you seek assistance from an IT professional.

DotNetNuke Installation Instructions 2


Prerequisites:

 Microsoft .NET Framework V3.5sp1 (required for DNN 5.2+)


 Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008/SQLExpress (required for DNN 5.2+)
 Microsoft IIS v5.0+ (other Windows based web servers are also possible)

In the instructions below wherever you find the term “WEBSITENAME” it is expected that you will use a name that means
something to the project you are configuring DotNetNuke for. Replace WEBSITENAME with your domain name or something
that makes sense in your scenario.

Install DotNetNuke as follows:

File System:

Create Folder

Create a folder on the web server where DotNetNuke will be deployed. For the remainder of the document, we will assume
this is C:\websites\WEBSITENAME, however, you are free to choose any suitable drive and folder.

Configure Permissions

If you are using IIS 7.5 (Windows 7/Windows Server 2008r2 you will need to complete this step after configuring the web
server, covered later in this document)

In this process you will need to setup permissions on the folder in the previous section. To do this you will right click on the
folder and choose Properties. Go to the Security tab on the properties window. In Windows XP if the Security tab is not
present, you must “turn off” simple file sharing for the folder by selecting Tools > Folder Options, then click the View tab.
Uncheck “Use simple file sharing” and click OK. You should now be able to access the Security tab.

On the Security tab, add the appropriate account into the list of available accounts with permissions. Which account you add
will depend on the version of IIS that you are using, which generally is dependent upon the version of Windows that you are
running. Below is a list of the typical accounts you will use.

Windows Version IIS Version Account


Windows XP/Windows 2000 5.1/5.0 ASPNET
Windows 2003/2008/Windows Vista 6.0/7.0 NETWORK SERVICE
Windows 7/2008r2 7.5 IIS APPPOOL\WEBSITENAME

It is important to configure the appropriate account with permissions on the file system. Be sure that you are using a local
machine account, not a domain account. If you have configured IIS and the Website Application Pools to run under a different
user account than the defaults listed above configure permissions for that account.

After adding the account to the list of users, click on the Full Control checkbox and APPLY the changes. Click OK to close the
remaining open windows.

DotNetNuke Installation Instructions 3


Package:

Download File

Download the INSTALL package for the latest release of DotNetNuke from the Downloads page on DotNetNuke.com. The
package is delivered as a ZIP file.

Extract File

Depending on your operating system, some ZIP files require you to right click on the ZIP file, choose properties and then click
on the UNBLOCK button on the properties windows. If you don’t have an UNBLOCK button you can ignore this step.

Extract the contents of the ZIP file to the folder C:\websites\WEBSITENAME. You can do this by right clicking on the file and
choosing “Extract To”. If you browse C:\websites\WEBSITENAME with Windows Explorer and are able to see the file
web.config, the ZIP extraction was successful. If you do not see this file, the extraction was not successful and you either
need to delete and re-do the extraction or move the extracted files into the C:\ websites\WEBSITENAME folder.

Database:

SQL Express

If you are using a configuration with SQL Express with the default installation options, no additional database configuration is
needed as the INSTALL package is pre-configured to use SQL Express by default.

SQL 2005/2008

If you are using a registered version of SQL Server, you need to configure DotNetNuke so it can connect to your database. You
can do this during the Installation Wizard steps later in the process or you can also do it manually before getting into the
wizard. To do this manually, open C:\DotNetNuke\web.config with a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad.

Delete the following line in the connectionStrings section:

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data


Source=.\SQLExpress;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;Integrated Security=True;User
Instance=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

Delete the following line in the appSettings section:

<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data


Source=.\SQLExpress;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;Integrated Security=True;User
Instance=True"/>

Uncomment (remove the <!-- before and the --> after) and edit the following line in the connectionStrings section to match
your server name, database name and user credentials:

<add name="SiteSqlServer"
connectionString="Server=(local);Database=DATABASENAME;uid=USERNAME;pwd=PASSWORD;"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

DotNetNuke Installation Instructions 4


Uncomment and edit the following line in the appSettings section to match your server name, database name and user
credentials:

<add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=(local); DATABASENAME;uid=USERNAME;pwd=PASSWORD;"/>

Save and close the web.config file.

Web Application:

The next step in setting up DotNetNuke will be to get a web application/site configured. To do so, we will use the IIS
Management Console that comes with Microsoft’s web server, IIS.

Launch the IIS Management Console (Type: INETMGR into your RUN window in Windows).

Installing DotNetNuke using a Virtual Directory (XP/2000/2003/2008)

After loading the management console expand the tree for “Default Web Site.” Right click and create a new Virtual Directory
named “WEBSITENAME” pointing to the C:\websites\WEBSITENAME folder. Right click on the new Virtual Directory and
choose Properties. On the ASP.NET Tab be sure “2.0” is selected (3.5 will not be an option).

Installing DotNetNuke using an Application (Vista/7/2008r2)

After loading the management console, expand the tree for “Default Web Site.” Right click and create a new Application
named “WEBSITENAME” pointing to the C:\websites\WEBSITENAME folder. Applications in IIS 7/7.5 are like Virtual
Directories in IIS6 when those Virtual Directories are configured to run an Application. In IIS 7/7.5 a Virtual Directory is simply
a pointer to a directory, without the ability to run an application.

Installing DotNetNuke using a Website (2000/2003)

In order to utilize this installation option you will need to have DNS configured for either a domain name, or computer name
for the website. For example if you wanted to use www.WEBSITENAME.com, that address must point to your web server.

After loading the management console, right click on the Websites node and choose NEW>WEB SITE. Provide a Description
(name) for the website. For the Host Header, use www.WEBSITENAME.com. For the “Path”, point this new website to the
C:\websites\WEBSITENAME folder. You should choose the Read and Scripts option when configuring the website. Once the
website is created, right click on the site and choose “Properties”. Make certain that “2.0” is selected on the ASP.NET tab.

More information on creating a Virtual Directory in IIS is available here:

For IIS 5/6: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zwk103ab.aspx

For IIS7: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb763173.aspx

Installing DotNetNuke using a Website (Vista/7/2008/2008R2)

In order to utilize this installation option you will need to have DNS configured for either a domain name, or computer name
for the website. For example if you want to use www.WEBSITENAME.com, that address must point to your web server.

After loading the management console, right click on the Websites node and choose NEW>WEB SITE. Provide a Description
(name) for the website. For the Host Header use www.WEBSITENAME.com. For the “Path”, point this new website to the
C:\websites\WEBSITENAME folder.

DotNetNuke Installation Instructions 5


In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008r2, when creating the website, be sure to make note of the Application Pool name,
likely WEBSITENAME. You will need to use this when you setup the file permissions (IIS APPPOOL\WEBSITENAME).

This completes the server-based installation of DotNetNuke. From this point forward, your interactions with DotNetNuke will
be through a web browser.

DotNetNuke Wizard:

The final step in the installation process is to launch the DotNetNuke wizard. Launch your preferred web browser and
navigate to http://localhost/WEBSITENAME (if you setup a website instead of a Virtual Directory you will access
http://www.WEBSITENAME.com). After a few seconds, the DotNetNuke Installation Wizard starts. The Wizard will guide you
through verifying your installation and configuring your first portal.

Choose the TYPICAL option and walk through the steps. Along the way DotNetNuke will verify a few things, such as whether
the Permissions are configured properly, and whether the database connection is successful. You will then populate user
information for a Superuser (host) account and an Administrator (admin) for the first Portal.

It is important that you complete the Wizard without interruption. If you stop midway, IIS will unload the DotNetNuke
application from memory and the Wizard will fail. If the Wizard fails at any step, we recommend deleting the files in
C:\websites\WEBSITENAME and begin again with extracting the ZIP file. If you corrected any problems reported by the
Wizard, starting over ensures you will not encounter complications from a partial installation.

For additional help with Installations, please visit the DotNetNuke Community Forums.

DotNetNuke and DNN are registered trademarks of DotNetNuke Corporation.

©DotNetNuke Corporation. All rights reserved

DotNetNuke Installation Instructions 6

You might also like