Create a site collection (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

A site collection is a group of Web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings, for example, permissions. When you create a site collection, a top-level site is automatically created in the site collection. You can then create one or more subsites below the top-level site.

A site collection must exist within a Web application. You can create a site collection based on an existing Web application, or you can create a Web application and then create a site collection within that application. For more information, see Create a Web application (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

If your Web application is for a single project or for use by a single team, you should use a single site collection to avoid the overhead of managing multiple sites. However, complex solutions benefit from multiple site collections because it is easier to organize content and manage permissions for each site collection. For example, because there is no built-in navigation from one site collection to another, having multiple site collections can provide an additional layer of security for site content.

SharePoint provides site templates in the following categories: collaboration, meetings, and custom. When you create a site collection, you select the template that matches what you want the site to do. For example, choose the Document Workspace template if you want to collaboratively author documents.

Before you create a site collection, ensure that the following prerequisites are available:

• A Web application in which to create the site collection.

• A quota template, if you plan to define values that specify how much data can be stored in a site collection and the storage size that triggers an e-mail alert to the site collection administrator. For more information, see Create, edit, and delete quota templates (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

• A custom managed wildcard path, if you plan to create the site collection somewhere other than under the root (/) directory or the /sites/ directory. For more information, see Define managed paths (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

In this article:

Create a site collection by using Central Administration

Create a site collection by using Windows PowerShell

Create a site collection by using Central Administration

You typically use the Central Administration Web site to create a site collection in a stand-alone deployment.

To create a site collection by using Central Administration

1. Verify that you have the following administrative credentials:

   • To create a site collection, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

2. On the Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Create site collections.

3. On the Create Site Collection page, in the Web Application section, if the Web application in which you want to create the site collection is not selected, on the Web Application menu click Change Web Application, and then click the Web application in which you want to create the site collection.

4. In the Title and Description section, type the title and description for the site collection.

5. In the Web Site Address section, select the path to use for your URL (for example, a wildcard inclusion path such as /sites/, or the root directory (/).

   If you select a wildcard inclusion path, you must also type the site name to use in your site's URL.

6. In the Template Selection section, in the Select a template list, select the template that you want to use for the top-level site in the site collection, or click the Custom tab to create an empty site and apply a template later.

7. In the Primary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name (in the form DOMAIN\username) for the user who will be the site collection administrator.

8. In the Secondary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name for the secondary administrator of the site collection.

   Designating a secondary site collection administrator is a best practice to ensure that someone can manage the site collection when a primary site collection administrator is not present.

9. If you are using quotas to manage storage for site collections, in the Quota Template section, click a template in the Select a quota template list.

10. Click OK.

Create a site collection by using Windows PowerShell

You typically use Windows PowerShell to create a site collection when you want to automate the task, which is common in enterprises.

To create a site collection by using Windows PowerShell

1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

5. From the Windows PowerShell command prompt (that is, PS C:\>), type the following command and press ENTER:

   Get-SPWebTemplate
   $template = Get-SPWebTemplate "STS#0"
   New-SPSite -Url "<URL for the new site collection>" -OwnerAlias "<domain\user>" -Template $template
   

   This example retrieves a list of all available site templates and then creates a site collection using the Team Site template. For more information, see New-SPSite and Get-SPWebTemplate.

   We recommend that you use Windows PowerShell when performing command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.

See Also

Other Resources

Resource Center: Installation and Deployment for SharePoint Foundation 2010