Every now and again I do a post about DNN as this is the platform that my site runs on. Some of you may be aware that recently there was a new version released on codeplex. Version 7.3.1 – Version Upgrade is available for download if you are running on a previous versions and would like to upgrade your site.
Like all things technical if we are going to make a change then we should plan for the work we are about to undertaken but also plan to be able to recover in the event of an issue arising. Given that this is my company site, a failed upgrade that could take my site offline for an extended period of time would not be good. As such after some discussions with my good friend Bruce Chapman (@brucerchapman) to find out about this new version I went about preparing for my upgrade from 7.01.01 to 7.03.01. The steps that I followed to achieve this upgrade I thought I would share especially for those of you who like me are hosted on an Azure Database backend rather than an Azure VM or other host.
My upgrade went for the most part smoothly and if you would like the same results then you can follow on with my steps to complete this upgrade process.
Backup Environment
To backup my environment was a 2-fold process. First off I needed to undertake an export of my Azure Database across to my Azure Storage account. If you are not sure how to do this you can follow the steps outline here. Once my export had completed I was part way there for my backup strategy of my site in the event of an issue happening with the upgrade process. The second step in my backup phase was to get a full backup copy of my site files. To achieve this I downloaded everything under ./site with my ftp tool.
Upgrade Process
The upgrade process that I am outlining below is for those of you who like me are running with your SQL Server database as an Azure database.
- Create a new folder on you site called Upgrade (ie – ./site/wwwroot/Upgrade)
- Upload the DNN_Platform_07.03.01_Upgrade.zip to the newly created Upgrade folder
- Inside of your Azure Site Dashboard, select Edit in Visual Studio Online
- If you do not already have this configured you will need to enable this feature. Select Configure in your menu options on your site dashboard. Scroll down until you find Edit in Visual Studio Online and enable it. Save your change.
- Start the Console inside of Visual Studio Online. This should place you located at ./site/wwwroot
- Change directories into the Upgrade folder (cd Upgrade)
- Unzip the upgrade package into the Upgrade folder (Unzip DNN_Platform_07.03.01_Upgrade.zip)
- Copy the extracted files and folders back to the wwwroot folder (xcopy *.* ..*.* /y/e)
- As long as the copy completes without errors you are traveling for a successful upgrade.
- Navigate to your sites home page (Ie www.sqlmastersconsulting.com.au)
- Enter your Host account and password and click the Upgrade button
- You should hopefully receive 100% complete like I did. Check the logs to ensure that there is nothing in the logs.
- Click View site
- Your back up and running
Step 16 is where I had my only issue. Due to the size of my site and the resource utilization that had already been used during the upgrade process it pushed me over my resource limits and suspended my site. If that is the worst that happens like me I only had to wait a couple of minutes for the site to come up and online and my site is running on the latest version.
You can confirm your version upgrade was a success by logging into your site with your Host account and you will be greeted with a new welcome screen.
But if you also go to Host | Host Settings you can confirm the version of your site. I wish you the same ease of upgrade as I had but please remember to do a little planning before you undertake this upgrade.
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