I have put off upgrading DNN from version 4 to version 5 for way too long.
This weekend I decided to put some real effort into troubleshooting the isses.

The errors / issues that I have been stumped by in the past when
going directly from DNN5.8.3 to whatever the current DNN version 5.*.* was
were the following:
1. The Log Viewer would produce and "Error message" when deleting a
   single item or clearing the log.
2. Accessing the "Portrals Page" would cause a "Yellow Screen of Death"
   Since my website make heavy use of parent portals this was a reall killer
   for me.

First I re-tried the big jump from 4.8.3 to 5.6.2 and failed. Then I took
Sebastian's advise and started 4.9.5 > 5.2.3 > 5.4.4 > 5.5.1 > 5.6.x  as the first step.

===================================

I Upgraded from 4.8.3 to 4.9.5 with No Errors and PageBlaster an iFinity URL disabled
Tested Clearing Log Viewer single entry and complete log and they work
Tested viewing the Portals Page and it works
Tested exporting and creating portals and that still works

==========================================================
Then I Upgraded from 4.9.5 to 5.2.3 and get NO Errors
Test Clearing Log Viewer single entry and complete log and they work
Test viewing the Portals Page and get the following Yelolow screen of death:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.get_ActionRoot() +52
   DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) +57

[ModuleLoadException: An error has occurred.]
   DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.Exceptions.ProcessModuleLoadException(String FriendlyMessage, Control ctrl, Exception exc, Boolean DisplayErrorMessage) +141
   DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) +220
   System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) +0
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +132
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +66
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +191
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +2428

[PageLoadException: An error has occurred.]
   DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.Exceptions.ProcessPageLoadException(Exception exc, String URL) +407
   System.Web.UI.Page.HandleError(Exception e) +109
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +11056939
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +11056490
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() +91
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +240
   ASP.default_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) +9
   System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +599
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +171

--------------------------------
The following was in the Event Log:

AssemblyVersion: 5.2.3
PortalID: 0
PortalName: Aging Safely, Inc.
UserID: 4
UserName: WebMaster
ActiveTabID: 17
ActiveTabName: Portals
RawURL: /asi3/tabid/17/Default.aspx
AbsoluteURL: /ASI3/Default.aspx
AbsoluteURLReferrer: http://localhost/asi3/Admin/LogViewer/tabid/48/Default.aspx
UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0
DefaultDataProvider: DotNetNuke.Data.SqlDataProvider, DotNetNuke.SqlDataProvider
ExceptionGUID: 832ba9e6-0af3-4f47-b41d-dfe615894e60
InnerException: Unhandled Error:
FileName:
FileLineNumber: 0
FileColumnNumber: 0
Method: DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.get_ActionRoot
StackTrace:
Message: System.Exception: Unhandled Error: ---> DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.PageLoadException: An error has occurred. ---> DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: An error has occurred. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.get_ActionRoot() at DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.Exceptions.ProcessModuleLoadException(String FriendlyMessage, Control ctrl, Exception exc, Boolean DisplayErrorMessage) at DotNetNuke.UI.Containers.ActionBase.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.Exceptions.ProcessPageLoadException(Exception exc, String URL) at System.Web.UI.Page.HandleError(Exception e) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest() at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at ASP.default_aspx.ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
Source:
Server Name: DSNOW2


============================================================

Anyone have ideas on how to troubleshoot or fix this problem?

---

/Dave S

No errors reported and the *.log files are EMPTY.  I don't understand that.

---

/Dave S

I just hired DNNhelp.com to resolve this issue.  The results were interesting, as I understand them:

1. The 5.0.0 SQLProvider upgrade script failed silently!  A severe bug in my opinion.
2. Somewhere between DNN4.3.5 and DNN 4.8.3, DNN decided that all portals should have a templates directory, but never went back and fixed up existing portals.  By DNN 5.3.1  modules were "relying" on this directory, and their upgrade would fail without it.
3. When creating a new Portal DNN doesn't cleanup when it fails part way thru. This can result in duplicate names for portal administrators and even trying to insert a record with a "duplicate key" and failing.

As a programer it looks like DNN should do a little better at error handling, prevention and cleanup.  I hope DNN 6.* has done so.

---

/Dave S