This article will explain how to install AspDotNetStorefront 8.0.1 (or greater) onto your Rackspace-hosted site.

NOTE: The AspDotNetStorefront software will only function on a root Rackspace account.  Due to restrictions in the Rackspace Cloud environment, it will not run in a 'Client' account.

1. Login to your control panel at http://manage.rackspacecloud.com.

2. Click on the "Websites & Email" button on the left navigation menu.

3. Click on the domain name you would like to change the technology on.

4. Click on the "Features" tab and then click on the "Customize" button in the "Technologies" section.

5. Select “Windows Server 2008 / IIS7” from the drop down menu and click on the "Save Settings" button.

NOTE: When changing your site's default technology, this changes the IP for the site. You can get the new IP on the Domain tab.

Purchase the storage space for the SQL Server database:

1. Log into your control panel at https://manage.rackspacecloud.com.

2. Click on "Websites & Email" on the left navigation menu.

3. Click on the domain you want to add a SQL Server database to.

4. Click on the "Change Plan" link in the Traffic & Disk Space section.

5. Skip the "Select a Hosting Plan" page by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the "Next Step" button.

6. On the "Additional Features" page in the "Microsoft SQL Storage" section, select the option that best corresponds to the amount of storage you would like to use.

7. In the “Additional Databases” section, select “1 additional database”.

8. Click on the "Next Step" button.

9. Review your selections and when ready, click on the "Next Step" button.

Now that you had added the storage space to the domain, you can now add the SQL Server database.

1. Log into your control panel at https://manage.rackspacecloud.com.

2. Click on "Websites & Email" on the left navigation menu.

3. Click on the domain you want to add a SQL Server database to.

4. Click on the Features tab.

5. Click on the "Add" button in the "Databases" section.

6. Enter the name of your database in the text field and select "SQL Server 2005" from the "Database Type:" drop down menu, and then click on the "Continue button.

7. Enter the database username and password you would like to assign then click on the "Finish" button.

Note your “Database Name” and “Username”, because they will be needed to configure AspDotNetStorefront, below.

1. Download the AspDotNetStorefront installation package from https://www.aspdotnetstorefront.com/mylicenses.aspx.

2. Agree to the Licensing Agreement, and extract the files to your computer.

 

1. Change the EncryptKey used to encrypt sensitive data. Find this line:

<add key="EncryptKey" value="TBD"/>

… and change the value to a random key. Record this key offline, because you cannot recover it if it’s lost.

2. Change the DBConn key to the values provided by Rackspace (you were asked to note them, above). Find this line:

<add key="DBConn" value=" data source=xx.xx.xx.xx; initial catalog=AspDotNetStorefront;user id=TBD;password=TBD;persist security info=True;packet size=4096" />

… and change the values to those provided by Rackspace:

<add key="DBConn" value="data source=mssql05-01.wc1\int1; initial catalog=123456_AspDotNetStorefront;user id=123456_sa;password=myPassword;persist security info=True;packet size=4096" />

3. Modify the <MachineKey> configuration to run within a clustered environment. Change the default setting:

<machineKey validationKey="AutoGenerate" decryptionKey="AutoGenerate" validation="SHA1" />

… to the settings provided by a Machine Key generation program such as This generator . A valid configuration (edited) would look like this:

<machineKey validationKey="AE8C96 … 8F8DFA" decryptionKey="0ABC8A … E2869E" validation="SHA1" />

4. Add the following line to the <system.web> section of the web.config file, replacing 'DATACENTER' with your Rackspace datacenter (DFW or SAT), 'YOURFTPUSER' with your Rackspace FTP username, and 'YOURFTPPASS' with your Rackspace FTP password:

<identity impersonate="true" userName="DATACENTER\YOURFTPUSER" password="YOURFTPPASS />

5. Additional “Go Live” recommendations can be found here: http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com/showthread.php?t=11330

 

The files required to run your website are localized to your AspDotNetStorefront \web directory. Remove any design-time files from this directory, such as *.psd files, and *.pdb files.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a method for adding content to your website. As its name indicates, FTP is a means for transferring files from one computer to another, or from a local computer to a remote server. To get started, you will need to use an FTP client, such as WinSCP, available here: http://winscp.net/eng/download.php

For any website you set up, Rackspace will automatically create an FTP address (i.e. ftp.yourdomain.com). However, due to the nature of DNS propagation, your custom ftp address may not work during the initial 48 hour period after DNS for the site has been set up. If you experience any issues using your custom ftp address (ftp.yourdomain.com) during this time, you should use the universal ftp address, "ftp1.ftptoyoursite.com." This universal ftp address will allow you to add content to your site before DNS has fully propagated to Rackspace.

Once you have logged into your FTP server a list of websites associated with your username and password will be displayed. Choose the domain you wish to upload your website files into, open it and you will find three additional directories. One of the three directories will be labeled "web," the other two folders are for server side stats and logs reporting and should not be deleted or edited. Open the "web" directory and you should see two more directories labeled "cgi-bin" and "content." If you have CGI or Perl files they will need to be uploaded into the "cgi-bin" folder while your HTML, ASP, PHP, images and other web files should be uploaded into your "content" folder.

Here is a roadmap of the FTP server that will be very similar to your domain's layout:

/www.yourdomain.com <-----Your domain's root directory

-----/web

----------/cgi-bin

----------/content <----- Files from the AspDotNetStorefront \web directory go in here

---------------/default.aspx <----- Files from AspDotNetStorefront

---------------/… etc …

-----/stats <----- Do not delete or edit

-----/logs <----- Do not delete or edit

You have now completed the installation for AspDotNetStorefront. Open your browser and enter go to your domain name's URL. If you have any questions concerning this article, please contact support.