Installing DotNetNuke (free Community Edition) on my www.larrybrouwer.com development web server.  My first thought was to use the Web Platform Installer in IIS, however, I opted out of this method as I wanted to gain a better understanding of what was actually occurring. So I downloaded it directly from the codeplex DotNetNuke download site.

There are several packages to choose from, I opted to go with the recommended download, which is the install version (no source code). Since I’ve already downloaded the source on my development workstation, I don’t need it on the server. The current version today is 5.3.1 released on 3/24/2010.

Installation steps:

1. Downloaded install version from codeplex DotNetNuke download site.
2. Unzip files to temp directory.
3. Copy contents of DotNetNuke_Community_05.03.01_Install into newly created web folder.
4. Open SSMS (SQLServer Management Studio) and connect to local dev database.
5. Create new database ‘…DotNetNuke’. Bumped up initial storage to 10MB.
6. Added new login and new database user for ‘…DotNetNuke’. Give new db user ‘db_owner’ role.
7. Decided to make this my default web site. Used IIS to stop larrybrouwer website. Added DotNetNuke web site on port 80. Used the default application pool.
8. Attempted to browse homepage. Getting an access denied error.
9. Changed the application pool to one already defined. Still getting same error.
10. Current version of IIS is 7.0.6000.16386. OS is Server 2008 SE SP2 32-Bit.
11. Found that I need to add ‘NETWORK SERVICE’ user with full control to ‘…DotNetNuke’ folder. see here.
12. Attempted to browse homepage again. This time, getting the Installation Wizard page.
13. Choosing ‘Typical’ installation.
14. Getting errors connecting to SQLServer.
15. So at this point, I’ve decided that I’d like my DotNetNuke to run as a sub-application underneath my main website. This should give me more flexibility if I want to change things around later.
16. Deleted current installation in progress and copied new install files into ‘…DotNetNuke’ folder.
17. Deleted Application in IIS7. Added new ‘…DotNetNuke’ application under my main website.
18. Attempted to browse new DotNetNuke application. Now getting a ‘500 – Internal server error.’ message.
19. Googled for help. found post here. In Internet Options, de-selected ‘Show friendly HTTP error messages’. Restart IE! Doesn’t take effect until restarting browser.
20. Now getting the standard ‘Not Found – HTTP Error 404’ message.
21. Found an installation utility written by Mike van der Meulen. I decided not to use his utility.

At this point, I gave up a manual installation and once again went back into IIS7 and ran the Web Platform Installer. I selected only the components needed (SqlServer dependencies, and DDN). I got it to complete fine, however, when I tried to browse the application, it gave me the same 404 error.

So, I recreated the environment from the manual install and the saga continues below:

1. Modified the ‘..DotNetNuke/web.config’. Added location tag around ‘<system.web>’ section.

Didn’t work. Upon further googling, I discovered that most of these application can’t run as a sub application and have to be ran from a root website.

… At this point the day has ended. I will take this up another day. I’ll keep you posted… so to speak!