Install DNN – A How-to DNN/DotNetNuke Installation Guide

Here’s a quick Install DNN how-to guide/tutorial. DNN (formerly known as DotNetNuke) is a popular and free open source Content Management System (CMS) built on the Microsoft .NET Framework.

This tutorial will quickly show you how to quickly install DNN on any of our ASP.NET Hosting packages which supports the following:

• ASP.NET 4.6
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012
• Windows 2012 Server

If you don’t have a web hosting account, click here for a 7 Days Free Trial ASP.NET Hosting Account
As of the time of writing this tutorial, we will be working with DNN 9.0.1 – which is the latest release version. To install DNN, first visit http://www.dnnsoftware.com/community/download to download the DNN Install Package and follow the instructions below to begin the DNN installation process.

Install DNN – Step 1: Create a Microsoft SQL Server Database:

To install DNN, first log into your control panel:

Once logged in, click on the “Databases” link on the left and then click on the “Add Database” button on the page that loads:

Enter the following information for the database:

• Database name: This is a required field, you’ll notice that your hosting/subscription’s username is already in there with an underscore “_” (e.g. “myusername_”) type in the name for your database after the underscore (e.g. “myusername_dnn”).
• Database server: Select the default server for MS SQL (not MySQL).
• Related site: If you have more than one hosting/subscriptions in your control panel, select the appropriate site from the drop down.

Make sure that the “Create a database user” checkbox is check.

• Database user name: Enter the name for your database user.
• New password: Enter a password for the database user.
• Confirm password: Re-enter the password for confirmation.

Make sure that the “User has access to all databases within the selected subscription” checkbox is selected. Go ahead and click on the “Ok” button.

You should get a page similar to the image below showing your newly created database:

DNN Installation – Step 2: Create a Virtual Directory:

DNN installation requires creation of a virtual directory. Click on the “Websites & Domains” link on the left to go to the website/domain management section of the control panel:

Select the “Virtual Directories” button/link:

First make sure you are in the subscription/website root, click on the “Create Virtual Directory” button/link:

Enter a name for your virtual directory and leave all other settings as selected by default. Then click on the “OK” button to creat the virtual directory and application:

You will be automatically taken into the newly created virtual directory as shown in the image bellow. Click on “Directory Access Permissions” button/link:

Select the Application pool group (IWPG_{your plesk user name}) and then on the right hand side which lists permissions, check “Allow” checkbox for the “Full Control” option. This will cause all permissions’ checkboxes to be selected. Click on the “OK” button to proceed:

Now, we’ve created the virtual directory where we will install DNN.

Installing DNN – Step 3: Download DNN & Prepare for Installation:

It’s time to do the necessary preparations and get ready to install DNN on the server. So therefore, go ahead and unzip the DNN install zip file downloaded earlier onto your personal computer. Locate the web.config file and change the SiteSqlServer setting in the connectionStrings parameter to the connection string of the Microsoft SQL Database created earlier in Step 1.

Note: to find the connection information for the database, go to the “Databases” section of the control panel. If you have more than one subscriptions/websites, select the appropriate subscription/website to display the databases for that subscription/website. Click on the “Connection Info” button/link under the database to display the connection information for that particular database. This will provide you with the Host, Database name, Username and Password (masked). You should already know the password when you created that database. Use this information (e.g. shown below) and add it accordingly to the connectionStrings parameter in the web.config.

When installing DNN/DotNetNuke, it’s much easier to use FTP in uploading files to the remote server. Using your favorite FTP client (such as the free FileZilla), upload the unzipped DNN files into the new virtual directory on your hosting server. DO NOT NAVIGATE TO THE SITE YET!

Go back to your control panel, navigate to the “Virtual Directories” section, select the virtual directory you created for this installation, and click on the ASP.NET Settings button/link:

Next, review the connection strings and make sure that the SiteSqlServer parameter corresponds exactly to what you entered in the web.config file. This shows that the web.config was uploaded correctly and Plesk has access to it for read/write purposes:

While still on the “ASP.NET Settings” page, scroll down and look for the “CAS trust level” option (under the “Code Access Security” sub section) and make sure that “Full” is selected. Click “OK”:

Now, open your web browser and go to the web address (i.e with the particular installation directory/folder). In our case, we’re doing the stall on dotnetdemo.dailyrazor.com/dnn/ (note: /dnn/ was the name of the virtual directory we created in Step 2.

Complete the required information: Administrative, Website and Database. You’ll observe that DNN already pulled up the database information from the web.config file. So review it – if the Database Password field is blank, you can re-enter it again. Click the “Continue” when done.

The DNN Installation process will do a quick check to verify database connection and if all checks out, it will proceed with the DNN install process:

Once DNN/DotNetNuke installation is completed click the Visit Website button to open the new site.