I'm sorry to hear that you're having so many issues upgrading.  When you're on versions as old as those, you'll end up having to build an upgrade path based on numerous tests, and it's generally going to be a path that's somewhat unique to your specific DNN instance.  It will definitely require at least a couple of phased upgrades, based on the version(s) of DNN and their requirements, as well as any third-party/custom extensions that may need to be upgrades at specific versions of DNN.  

These resources should help you build your upgrade plan.  There are plenty of great tips in there for you!  😊 

• Presentation (video): DNN Upgrades Made Simple
• Presentation Slides

My Hosting provider cut me off from my backups by terminating my VPS while I was still trying to work things out

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place

I was forced to unwillingly migrate on a tight schedule, now I'm stuck with a non funcional application

Is there any way I can try to fix this with some kind of workaround? I didn't yet understand where the problem comes from... if it's from the old Solpartmenu control or from the outdated Jquery javascript stuff... even though the upgrade did not install new Javascript libraries... I tried changing browsers to no avail. 

This is a really old installation, I think I'm a record setter. It started years ago... probably DNN 3 and it's miraculously still alive (or should I say, was still alive)...

Do you happen to have any functional backup from before the hosting getting shut down? You may be able to just start over using that.  

Posted By EdoDNN on 6/4/2024 8:24 PM

Is there any way I can try to fix this with some kind of workaround? I didn't yet understand where the problem comes from... if it's from the old Solpartmenu control or from the outdated Jquery javascript stuff... even though the upgrade did not install new Javascript libraries... I tried changing browsers to no avail. 

This is a really old installation, I think I'm a record setter. It started years ago... probably DNN 3 and it's miraculously still alive (or should I say, was still alive)...

When you press F12, what kind of errors do you see under Console?

 

 

So, I finally managed to convince my hosting provider to get my old VPS up and running so now I do have a backup of a working DNN 7.4 installation. This gives me a few more chances.
So the main problem when I first migrated was that my DNN installation that was running on the old Windows 2012 server, was running very very very slowly on the new Windows Server 2022. At first I thought it was a new version of .NET clashing with the older installation but then, on closer inspection I noticed both installations are running the exact same .NET version. The only difference being the OS, and the IIS version.
This was what forced me to try the upgrade in the first place. Had the DNN app run decently I would have kept on going with my old but true DNN 7.3.

Unfortunately after the upgrade things seem to work but only on the surface.
On one portal my Catalook store isn't showing products on one portal,
On another portal it is only showing data on some modules but the paging doesn't work
The host management page doesn't update values when you click on the update button so... postbacks don't work

As for what shows up on console when i hit F12... a bunch of stuff plus something about a third part cookie being blocked.
Most of the stuff has to do with jquery and Microsoft.Ajax
lots of errors have to do with this: http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...orms.debug.js:656:23
Deprecated feature used. MicrosoftAjax.Debug.js:4054
incorrect use of
30 violating nodes...
No label associated with a form field (14 violations)
Here is an example...

Fallback Doctype Tema:

Uncaught Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: An unknown error occurred while processing the request on the server. The status code returned from the server was: 503
at Function.Error$create [as create] (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...jax.debug.js:237:15)
at Sys$WebForms$PageRequestManager.Sys$WebForms$PageRequestManager$_createPageRequestManagerServerError [as _createPageRequestManagerServerError] (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...rms.debug.js:656:23)
at Sys$WebForms$PageRequestManager.Sys$WebForms$PageRequestManager$_onFormSubmitCompleted [as _onFormSubmitCompleted] (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...ms.debug.js:1311:36)
at Array. (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...Ajax.debug.js:47:23)
at http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...jax.debug.js:3484:23
at Sys$Net$WebRequest.Sys$Net$WebRequest$completed [as completed] (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...ax.debug.js:6376:13)
at XMLHttpRequest. (http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com...ax.debug.js:5996:35)

I also get this ugly error message right on my welcome page when I log in as Admin or host:

Could not load Container: /Portals/_default/Containers/CAT01/TranspHeader_TranspBG_Border.ascx DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: Errore di caricamento del modulo non gestita. (unmanaged module loading exception)---> System.Web.HttpParseException: Could not load type 'DotNetNuke.UI.WebControls.SolPartActions'. ---> System.Web.HttpParseException: Could not load type 'DotNetNuke.UI.WebControls.SolPartActions'. ---> System.Web.HttpException: Could not load type 'DotNetNuke.UI.WebControls.SolPartActions'. at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.GetType(String typeName, Boolean ignoreCase, Boolean throwOnError) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ProcessInheritsAttribute(String baseTypeName, String codeFileBaseTypeName, String src, Assembly assembly) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.PostProcessMainDirectiveAttributes(IDictionary parseData) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ProcessException(Exception ex) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseStringInternal(String text, Encoding fileEncoding) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseString(String text, VirtualPath virtualPath, Encoding fileEncoding) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ProcessException(Exception ex) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseStringInternal(String text, Encoding fileEncoding) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseString(String text, VirtualPath virtualPath, Encoding fileEncoding) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseFile(String physicalPath, VirtualPath virtualPath) at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseInternal() at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.Parse() at System.Web.Compilation.BaseTemplateBuildProvider.get_CodeCompilerType() at System.Web.Compilation.BuildProvider.GetCompilerTypeFromBuildProvider(BuildProvider buildProvider) at System.Web.Compilation.BuildProvidersCompiler.ProcessBuildProviders() at System.Web.Compilation.BuildProvidersCompiler.PerformBuild() at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.CompileWebFile(VirtualPath virtualPath) at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetVPathBuildResultInternal(VirtualPath virtualPath, Boolean noBuild, Boolean allowCrossApp, Boolean allowBuildInPrecompile, Boolean throwIfNotFound, Boolean ensureIsUpToDate) at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetVPathBuildResultWithNoAssert(HttpContext context, VirtualPath virtualPath, Boolean noBuild, Boolean allowCrossApp, Boolean allowBuildInPrecompile, Boolean throwIfNotFound, Boolean ensureIsUpToDate) at System.Web.UI.TemplateControl.LoadControl(VirtualPath virtualPath) at DotNetNuke.UI.ControlUtilities.LoadControl[T](TemplateControl containerControl, String ControlSrc) at DotNetNuke.UI.Skins.Pane.LoadContainerByPath(String containerPath) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

While I'm at it, I'm attempting the upgrade on the old VPN to see if the same problems arise after the upgrade.
For the time being everything seems fine, no errors during the upgrade.
Looks like things are working better but I got an almost mirror image for the page loading speed or lack thereof.
In the new Windows 2022 server setting my DNN 7.4 performance was slow and sluggish, while the DNN 8 install is fast (but has a load of errors and hardly is hardly functional)
On the other hand in the Windows 2012 server setting DNN 7.4 worked fine and DNN 8 is really, really slow, BUT... up till now, with no errors. The only one is caused by the Feedback Module... I did have to upgrade it too, so I guess that'll go away after I install a newer version.
Well now that's a mistery. Will the new upgraded backup work flawlessly on the Windows 2022 Server machine?
I hope so. Wonder what difference could cause the same upgrade to work on one machine and fail on another one....