Hello,

We are currently using SQL Server 2000 with DNN 2.1.2.  We would like to upgrade to SQL Server 2005 so we can stop using SQL Server 2000.

So far I can successfully use a SQL Server 2k5 database for one of our portals, but I need to use the DNN database on 2k5, not 2000.

Our production db's and portals are using 2k so I can't really go into the current ones and just start modifying.

Any suggestions?  I'm assuming this is possible?

THANKS AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

Kind Regards,
David Henley

Oh, and we can't upgrade to a new version of DNN because our custom modules are only for 2.1.2 and it would be way too much work to attempt new modules for us.

Have you tried backing up the SQL 2000 database and then restoring it into the SQL 2005 server?

You should only then need to change the connection string to the server in the web.config file.

Hi Lee,

Thanks for getting back to me. Our DNN and portal DBs are 2000 and I did a full backup then restore to 2005 without any problem. I noticed on the old connection string in the web.config file that the server was specified as an IP address. I changed the server to the name of our SQL Server 2005 server which is on the same server. I'm not that SQL Server saavy, but there wouldn't be a different IP for another instance of SQL Server on the same machine would there? I've been searching forums for most of the day and haven't made much progress.

I don't know if there is a way to change the Portal Root? Even with a different connection string, copy of the DNN folder, and a new virtual directory pointed at the new DNN folder, the portal page is trying to find modules from the old DNN folder.

Is there any possibilty of doing this another way? I'm pretty much at a stand-still right now.

THANKS AGAIN!!

Cheers,
David Henley

If you have moved your web directory, you'll need to point IIS there.  If you've changed the URL of the portal, you'll need to adjust this in the PortalAlias table in your database.

Hello,

Below is a few paragraphs outlining some background, but my question is:

Can I take a portal in 2000 and update it to point to a DNN database and content database in 2005 while still keeping the same URL?

Our goal is to make the switch over to SQL 2005 invisible, so our URL is going to be the same. We have a test portal that I am using. I have made the data source for our modules point to this test db on 2005. Everything works fine so far. The new database is on 2005, but the DNN database is still on 2000 (i mean we haven't deleted 2k yet).

In our goal to move away from 2000, we need to move the DNN database over to 2005. I have backed up and restored the DNN database to 2005, so we are running a DNN database on 2000 and the exact same backup on 2005 with both of these running on the same machine.

We have 24 different portal sites running on 2000 so altering the current DNN database on 2k or the website that points to the DNN directory in Inetput isn't an option. The website points to a static IP with no host header.

Now what I have done is created a new website in IIS with a host header that points to our test URL and no static IP. This website also points to the COPY of the original DNN folder in Inetpub and not the original DNN folder.

I edited the web.config file in the COPY of the DNN folder to point to the 2005 SQL Server which resides on the same machine as the 2000 SQL Server.

The portal alias is still pointing to the test URL because we don't want to change the URLs, only change the databases over.

So when I delete the portal_id for our test portal from the 2000 version and browse to the test URL, I get an error saying that our modules can't be found in the original DNN directory. The reason I deleted this test portal from 2000 is because like I said 2k is going away. However, when I leave the portal_id folder in the DNN folder, everything works as normal.

Please let me know you need additional information or if any of this isn't clear.

THANKS !!

David Henley

It should work.

Backup your existing database, and restore it to your new database server. Edit web.config to point to the new database server. That should be it.

There is no URL issue because you aren't changing the website.

What am I missing in your description?

It almost sounds too easy.

You're not missing anything in my description. Basically we want to eliminate 2000 and go to 2005 with the same database, modules, everything.

I'll have to backup our current DNN folder or at least the web.config file and try it either real early in the morning or late at night to make sure our clients aren't using the portals. Hopefully that will work. Will post again if it doesn't.

Thanks,
David Henley

I would suggest that you make a complete backup of both the website and the database, and then install on a test system.  You should only need to change the portalalias for one of the sites to verify that it works.