Upgrading DotNetNuke

It’s important to keep your web applications up-to-date. This prevents known vulnerabilities from being exploited and wreaking havoc on your site. That goes for any third-party software you might use on your site, but today we’re going to talk about updating DotNetNuke.

The most important thing before upgrading is to back up your current DotNetNuke site. Also, if you are using any third-party themes or modules, please contact the author(s) before upgrading to make sure they are still supported in the latest version of DNN.

Backing up the MS SQL database

• Log in to Control Panel
• Click the Sites tab
• Click your site account
• Click MS SQL Manager
• Click Manage next to the MS SQL database your DNN site is using.
• Next to Tools, click Backup
• Click Create Backup

This will place the backup of your MS SQL database within the App_Data directory with the file extension “.bak.”

Backing up your web site files via FTP

• If you don’t already have an FTP client installed, we recommend the FileZilla FTP client.
• Read our Knowledge Base article on how to connect to your site via FTP.
• Once connected, download your entire file structure to your local computer.
• Remember the backup of your MS SQL database will be located within the App_Data folder. So you’re backing up your database onto your local computer too.

Downloading the upgrade files and Extracting

Important: you must know your SuperUser account login in order to upgrade.

You can download the Upgrade files through DNN’s download page.

• Download the UPGRADE PACKAGE Files needed for upgrading an existing installation of DNN Platform.
• Once downloaded, unzip the files on to your computer, keeping the directory structure intact.

Uploading the updated files

• Connect to your site via FTP and navigate to the directory where you have DNN installed.
• Upload the UPGRADE PACKAGE files you just downloaded into the directory. If your FTP client asks you to overwrite the files go ahead and overwrite them.
• Once the upload is complete, go to the next step.

Upgrading

• Visit your site where you have DNN installed.
• DNN will ask you to login as the SuperUser account. Then click on the Upgrade button.
• DNN will be upgraded to the latest DNN installation.