A frequent question in the  forums is "How to upgrade my DotNetNuke install".. I thought i'd post a brief guide here for easy ref

• download the upgrade package of the version you wish to upgrade to
• unzip or copy or ftp all files in the zip file to the root of your dnn application
• rename web.config to something like web.config.[date].resources (you can use any other name, but the date will make it easy to keep track of older webconfigs, the .resources extension makes sure the file cannot be downloaded)
• rename release.config to web.config
• change the following things (copy from old web.config file):
  • 2 sql connection strings
  • machinekey (under system.web)
  • optionally objectQualifier and/or DBO (under  )
  • optionally make any other custom changes you had in your old web.config
  • save the new web.config
• browse to your site, upgrade will start automatically

if you want to prevent visits to your site while you are upgrading, you can do the following:

• before copying the upgrade files to your site, put a file called "App_Offline.htm" in the root of your dnn installation, this will take the application offline (see here for more info: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/10/06/426755.aspx )
• Change the AutoUpgrade value to False (under appsettings in web.config). This will prevent the dnn autoupgrade feature.
• You can manually start the upgrade by browsing to this url: http://[yourdomain]/install/install.aspx?mode=install

Comments on this are welcome, but please no discussion!

(cross posted from my blog on dotnetnuke.com)