All this is definitely my fault as I'm not up to scratch using Windows Server 2008 and IIS technologies, as well as the various control panels and things that come along with windows shared hosting, my past experience has been with installing things like Wordpress where I would just create a database and user name and fill in the fields. 


My Goal: Install DotNetNuke 


My Hoster www.softsyshosting.com/ makes all this very easy by providing a platform installer but I still run into problems creating a database / getting through the wizzard. 


Here is what I did: 


Created a SQL Server 2008 Database called dnndb
Created user for dnndb called dnnusr
Click on Microsoft Web App Gallery
Find DNN and click install


At this point the prompts are all straight forward until I get to Configure Database Connection (Attached)


The FIELDS required are: 


Server:
(Enter the Name or IP Address of the computer where the Database is located. (if using Oracle enter the Data Source (SID)))
the default value in this field is .\SQLExpress but I dont know what to change it to. The DNN install documentation talks about changing it to "." but that is in the contxt of local install and using SQL Server Express. I do not know what to use for SQL Server 2008 during Microsoft Web App Installer? I tries using "." anyway, I also tried using my website URL (which is probably silly, I'm just lost for ideas). 




Filename:
Default value for this is Database.mdf which I think is correct, because I found that file in my AppData file in File Manager? 


Integrated Security (checkbox)
I tried checking this and unchecking this, niehter gave me a success. 


Run As db Owner
Check this if you are running the database as Database Owner - if left unchecked you will be running as the User ID specified
Unsure about this one too? I tried both but with all the different combinations I tried it could be anything wrong at this stage. Trial and error is a bit of a lost cause at this stage. 


Ay help of advice on any of this stuff would be VERY appreciated. 

Ask the host for the server name or for them to install it. I've found some hosting companies are more than willing to install it if you open a ticket.

Mark