Forgetting the host password of DNN puts any user in a tough spot.

That’s where the DNN Host Password Reset comes for the rescue.

Thus it avoids the need to create a new DNN site again.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to reset the DNN host password as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers change the DNN host password.

Understanding DNN Host password

DNN host account is the superuser account of DotNetNuke websites.  It works as the administrator account of the entire DNN installation. It aids in building new websites within the existing DNN installation, manages files that can be shared across all websites. Also, it can control what types of content and files are available on a website.

Thus, losing the DNN host password stop any user from performing modifications on the website.

How we reset DNN Host password

DNN host password reset is a common query that we receive as part of our Windows Administration. Let’s now check on how we do it.

The DNN host password reset can be done by the following methods.

1. Reset the host password by registering a new user

1. Initially, we take a backup of the database before performing the reset operation.

2. We register a new user through the website by the Register option on the login page.

3. Then we entered the below details.

4. We saved the password for the new user.

5. Then opened the database through the SQL manager, and select the table ‘Users’.

6. Noted down the email address of the Host (usually first in the table) and the New user (usually in the last).

7. Next, we selected table aspnet_membership.

8. Searched for the new user entry with the email address by the below query.

  Select * from dbo.aspnet_membership where Email=’emailaddress’ 

9. Copied and saved the Password and Password Salt entries.

10. Next, we searched for the Host entry with the email address.

 Select * from dbo.aspnet_membership where Email=’hostemailaddress’

11. Replaced the Password and Password Salt entries of the New User to the Password and Password Salt entries of the Host using the below query.

Update “tablename” set Password=’password’ where Email=’hostemailaddress’
Update “tablename” set PasswordSalt=’password_salt” where Email=’hostemailaddress

12. After login to the DNN site, we removed the new user.

2. If Register option is not enabled in the site

In some situations, there will not be an option to register a new user for the site. In such cases, we follow the steps given below.

1. Open the table ‘Portals’ in the database.

2. Check the value of column ‘UserRegistration’

3. Usually, the value of user registration is zero. So to enable user registration, we update the value under the column UserRegistration to 2.

 Update Portals set UserRegistration=’2′

4. After restarting the site, the register option becomes available in the site. And, we continue with the steps of the password reset.

After completing the password reset, the login page become accessible with the new password.

[Having trouble with the DNN host password reset? – We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

DNN site has the password retrieval system which can help to recover the password. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers reset the DNN host password in different ways.