How to create a site collection

Question

I need to create a site collection so that url looks like http://hr.mycompany.com instead of http://portal.mycompany.com/hr. How do I do that?

Answer 1

What you're looking for is the host named site collection, which enables you to assign a unique DNS name to site collections. Or alternatively create an AAM for existing Site collection to achieve it. For example, you can address them as http://hr.mycompany.com or http://sales.mycompany.com.

The sample PowerShell code creates a new web application listing on port 80, and two host named site collections that use the Publishing Portal site template.

1. Create a web application to host your host-named site collections

   $w = New-SPWebApplication -DatabaseName "WSS_Content" -ApplicationPool "SharePoint - Content App Pool" -Name "HostNameTest" -Port 80

2. Perform an IIS reset

   IISRESET /noforce on each server before using the new web application

3. Create a root site collection

   This is required for Search crawling content. For more information, see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424952.aspx#section2b

   $webAppUrl = "web application url" #ex: http:// sharepointserver

   New-SPSite $webAppUrl -OwnerAlias "SP\someusername" $w -Name "RootSC"

4. Create your site collections

   $w = Get-SPWebApplication "HostNameTest"

   New-SPSite http://hr.mycompany.com -OwnerAlias "SP\someusername" -HostHeaderWebApplication $w -Name "HostA" -Template "BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0"

   New-SPSite http://sales.mycompany.com -OwnerAlias "SP\someusername" -HostHeaderWebApplication $w -Name "HostB" -Template "BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0"

So, you will have a web application with two two host-named site collections.

If SSL is a requirement, you can also create the web application and the host-named site collections using https (ex: port 443). But you will need to buy a wildcard certificate or a SAN certificate for *.mycompany.com. Also note that SSL is a requirement for certain features of SharePoint 2013.

To find more information:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424952.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2012/03/27/what-every-sharepoint-admin-needs-to-know-about-host-named-site-collections.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/speschka/archive/2013/06/26/logical-architecture-guidance-for-sharepoint-2013-part-1.aspx

Answer 2

You need to create a new web application and specify this as the URL, yes you could use an existing site collection an extend it using AAM but if you are starting from scratch a new web app and site collection is best.

Thanks

Matt

Answer 3

Specify the host header what you want it to look like while creating new web application. or you can always use Alternate access mapping to look like http://hr.mycompany.com.