Hi All! I completely new to DNN so I'll submit to ridicule on this. How can I copy an existing, customized DNN instance/all portals/install (4.9.0) from server A (Windows Server 2003) to a new server B (Windows Server 2008)? Is there a utility or a user guide out there that can step me through this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The techniques in these tutorials should get you going:

• How to backup a live hosted DotNetNuke website and restore it to a localhost installation
• How to transfer a localhost DotNetNuke installation to a live website

Basically, you need to copy the database and web directory from A and install on B.  You'll need to set up the website on B and adjust file permissions, and you'll need to edit web.config so that it points at the database server.  In the database, you will need to change the portalalias table to have the correct URL for the new site.

If the tutorials aren't enough, feel free to ask lots of questions.

Ok, cool! Thanks so much for the post. I will peruse the links/tutorials but this is what I have attempted thus far. STEPS I have tried: ■Installed DNN 4.9.0 on new server B (and successfully verified plain vanilla site/portal, via http://localhost/DNNl)" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNNl) ■Copied all files within my DNN directory (C:\inetpub\wwwroot\DNN was the main install dir) from server A to server B ■Copied related existing databases (DNN, UserLoginDb) from one sql server 2005 box (DNN instance on server A users these - these are known good working productioin copies) to new sql server 2008 box (server B will be using these). Currently created a DNN-Test DB on sql server 2008 to setup plain vanilla DNN instance on server B. ■Changed web.config file info so that DB's point to sql server 2008 login info (for new server B) ■ and ■Tried to hit url locally to load the ported site: ■-> http://localhost/DNN ■Result: from IE: Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

You are close.

• I'm not sure why you have two existing DNN databases.  You should have only one.
• You should point the instance copied from Server A to the database copied from the original server.
• You will also need to edit the portalalias table in the database if the site's URL changed.   The redirect to localhost indicates that you haven't done that.
  

Ok, this is turning out a little more involved that I thought. I have updated the portal aliases table to reflect the current iis server that dnn was ported. Basically I replaced all instances of "webserverA" (i.e. webserverA/DNN, webserver/DNN/portal-2, etc,...) with "webserverB". Howerver, I'm still getting the same error, Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage even after resetting IIS and refreshing the app-pool and application. I really appreciate the help with this.

OK, you first need to find out if the problem is with the website, or with DotNetNuke.

• Put an index.html file in your website's root directory.  Now, if you browse, is that page served?  If not, the problem has to do with the webserver configuration, and has nothing at all to do with DotNetNuke.
• Change the filename to app_offline.htm.  Now, if you browse to the site and the file is served, you know that the website AND ASP.NET are working correctly.
• If both of these are done, remove app_offline.htm and browse again.  Any resulting problems are with DotNetNuke.
  

Noteworthy (not sure if this matters): • Before I started the port just so that I could learn I installed DNN 4.9.0 from scratch. • I did get a plain vanilla DNN instance to serve via http://localhost/DNN" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNNTest" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNN" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNNTest # 1: • Placed index.html in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html • Browsed to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html and double clicked on it in explorer o File was served # 2: • Renamed to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html to app_offline.html (and app_offline.htm) Browsed to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html and double clicked on it in explorer o File was served • Typed in http://localhost/DNN" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNN in IE o Resulted in error: “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” #3: Attempted to remove app_offline.html and browse to http://localhost/DNN" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://localhost/DNN and received the same error as above.

Not sure what is going on with the formatting here with my replies as my text is all getting conacatenated. My apologies for that.

Did those files also get served properly if you browsed to the URL?  Double clicking a file sort of bypasses the whole IIS issue.

Yes, browsing to both were successful: - http://localhost/index.html - http://localhost/app_offline.htm Just for giggles I was able to port a baseline DNN instance/install from one server to the same server that I'm trying to get my "Ported" portal up an running on. But still no go with getting the ported one up and running.

Do you know if there is a log file that might provide some insight as to where this thing is breaking?

You would want to look at your IIS logs.