Upgrading from 4.4.1 to 4.5.3 will use generally the same techniques. I'd also recommend that you look at
Mitchel Sellers blog entry that deals with upgrading from 4.4.1 to 4.5.2 (he may have another entry that deals specifically with 4.5.3).
Generally, you start with release.config in the upgrade package and move items from your existing web.config. This is what I do:
- Save a copy of web.config as web.config - yyyymmdd ( I use yyyymmdd to help remember when I saved it)
- copy release.config to web.config.new
- copy the connection strings from the old web.con to web.config.new ( there are two places to do this)
- copy the machine keys settings
- copy the installation date setting
- You may have other items that you have added to your web.config that will also need to be copied. These may include code directories if you have installed modules written in C#. The best be is to go throught the exising web.config line by line to try to identify sections that need to be moved.
In terms of doing the upgrade, I'd also recommend that you set the automatic upgrade flag to "false" and set the custom error mode to "Off".
Then, to actually do the upgrade ...
- take your site offline using the web page outlined in Seller's blog
- Back up your DNN directory
- Back up your DNN database
- copy the DNN "upgrade" files over your existing directory
- copy the web.config.new file you've created to web.config
- put the site back online (I do this by adding " - save" to the name of the file that takes the site offline
- browse to http://mysite.url/Install/install.aspx
This last step starts the upgrade process. Watch for errors. If there are errors in the web.config file, you'll have to track them down and fix them.
If you've botched the whole thing, take the site offline, restore the directory and database, and bring the site up again. Then, relax and try to figure out what went wrong ... ask for help ... try it again.