Install DNN 9 on Windows Server 2019 Core

This guide describes the process of installing DNN 9 on Windows Server Core 2016/2019 VM for development purposes. It is tested on DNN 8.0.4, DNN 9.6.2 and DNN 9.8.0. Some things are still missing or don’t have detailed description, but I hope it still will be helpful, especially if you are new to the Windows Server Core administration.

Setup VirtualBox VM and networking

Install Windows Server 2019 x64 Core on e.g. VirtualBox (out of scope of this post), using 32 GB dynamic VDI disk, 1 GB of RAM and UEFI. You can tweak RAM size and resize virtual disk later.

You will need to configure host-only network interface, which will allow connections between virtual and host machines. Of cause, there are more virtual networking options.

Assuming that DHCP server of host-only interface is configured to lease IP addresses starting with 192.168.56.101, you should add the following line to /etc/hosts (on Linux) or C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (on Windows):

192.168.56.101	dnn980.hostname.local

If you’ll need multilanguage website, it is good to have separate alias for each of target languages:

192.168.56.101	dnn980.hostname.local
192.168.56.101	de.dnn980.hostname.local
192.168.56.101	ru.dnn980.hostname.local
...

Install IIS

List of currently installed features:

Get-WindowsFeature

Install IIS and ASP.NET:

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Server
Install-WindowsFeature Web-Asp-Net45

Install SQL Server Express/Developer

Get and run the SQL Express 2019 downloader:

wget https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=866658 -UseBasicParsing -OutFile sqlexpress.exe
./sqlexpress.exe

Proceed with GUI wizard from now to download real installer.

After downloading real installer, find and run SETUP.EXE - this will require some command-line switches.

Good old GUI wizard:

./SETUP.EXE /UIMODE=EnableUIOnServerCore /Action=Install

Command-line:

./SETUP.EXE /Q /Action=Install /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD="MyP@$$w0rd" /TCPENABLED=1 /FEATURES=SQLEngine /ADDCURRENTUSERASSQLADMIN

Create the database for DNN

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/6223/create-sql-server-database-with-powershell/

Create folder to store databases:

mkdir C:\Databases

Configure permissions:

$acl = Get-Acl "C:\Databases"
$accessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("NT Service\MSSQLSERVER", "FullControl", "ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")
$acl.SetAccessRule($accessRule)
Set-Acl "C:\Databases" $acl

Create the CreateDnn980Database.sql file somewhere:

CreateDnn980Database.sql

use master;
go

create database Dnn980
  on (name = N'Dnn980', filename = N'C:\Databases\Dnn980.mdf')
  log on (name = N'Dnn980_log', filename = N'C:\Databases\Dnn980_log.ldf');
go

alter authorization on database::Dnn980 to sa
go

Execute it:

Invoke-SqlCmd -ServerInstance "(local)" -InputFile "CreateDnn980Database.sql"

Configure firewall

Get the current rules, e.g. related to ICMP:

Get-NetFirewallRule | Where Name -like "*ICMP*"

Allow ping:

Set-NetFirewallRule -Name FPS-ICMP4-ERQ-In -Enabled True -Profile Any -Action Allow

Allow external connections to IIS via HTTP (port 80):

This is done by default by adding webserver role, rule names IIS-WebServerRole-HTTP-In-TCP and IIS-WebServerRole-HTTPS-In-TCP.

Allow inbound SMB for shared folders:

Set-NetFirewallRule -Name FPS-SMB-In-TCP  -Enabled True -Profile Any -Action Allow

Download and unpack DNN

wget https://github.com/dnnsoftware/Dnn.Platform/releases/download/v9.6.2/DNN_Platform_9.6.2_Install.zip -UseBasicParsing -OutFile dnn980.zip
Expand-Archive dnn980.zip -DestinationPath C:\Dnn980
rm dnn980.zip

Add website and application pool in IIS

Import-Module IISAdministration
New-IISSite -Name dnn980.hostname.local -BindingInformation "*:80:dnn980.hostname.local" -Protocol http -PhysicalPath C:\Dnn980

You can easily manipulate binding information for the website using New-WebBinding and Remove-WebBinding commandlets:

Import-Module WebAdministration
Remove-WebBinding -Name dnn980.hostname.local -HostHeader dnn980.hostname.local
New-WebBinding -Name dnn980.hostname.local -port 443 -Protocol https -HostHeader dnn980.hostname.local

But this will not create the application pool for the new website!

Create new application pool and bind it to the website:

Import-Module WebAdministration
New-WebAppPool -Name "dnn980.hostname.local"
Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\Sites\dnn980.hostname.local" -Name "applicationPool" -Value "dnn980.hostname.local"

Check:

Import-Module WebAdministration
ls "IIS:\AppPools"

This will list all websites and corresponding application pools.

Configure file system permissions

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25779423/powershell-to-set-folder-permissions#25780422

$acl = Get-Acl "C:\Dnn980"
$accessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("IIS_IUSRS", "ReadAndExecute", "ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")
$acl.SetAccessRule($accessRule)
Set-Acl "C:\Dnn980" $acl
$accessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule("IIS APPPOOL\dnn980.hostname.local", "FullControl", "ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit", "None", "Allow")
$acl.SetAccessRule($accessRule)
Set-Acl "C:\Dnn980" $acl

Check:

Get-Acl "C:\Dnn980" | Format-List

You will probably need the website folder to be accessible via share, so you can setup automatic deployment of build output from IDE into it.

Install-WindowsFeature FS-SMB1-SERVER
# Optional?
# Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName smb1protocol

New-SMBShare -Name "Dnn980" -Path "C:\Dnn980" -FullAccess "Administrator"

Test this by trying to access share by IP like that: \\192.168.56.101\Dnn980.

Run DNN install

Access http://dnn980.hostname.local from a web browser on host machine and follow installation wizard!

Database setup form fields:

Database Setup: Custom
Database Type: SQL Server/SQL Server Express Database
Server Name: (local)
Database Name: Dnn980
Database Username: sa

Extra

Install Far file manager

wget far-manager.ru/files/Far_Manager_v3.0_build_4455.zip -UseBasicParsing -OutFile far.zip
Expand-Archive far.zip -DestinationPath .
./Far30b4455.x64.20151115.msi

Now you will probably want to add far command to the PATH.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9546324/adding-directory-to-path-environment-variable-in-windows

Most simple way to do it is via regedit. User environment variables are at HKCU\Environment, system variables are at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment.

Multiple console windows

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, select Task Manager, then run cmd.exe or powershell.exe via File › Run new task menu.

TODO

Separate initial configuration and adding new DNN instances
Create separate database owner for each database
Configure firewall to allow external connections to the SQL Server: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/configure-the-windows-firewall-to-allow-sql-server-access?view=sql-server-ver15
Further integration (probably out of scope): vm-scripts, /etc/fstab entries for shares, deploy build output to the share, etc.

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