How to Install SharePoint Server 2007 - Part 2

Install and configure Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 to create a company intranet portal website for company news, announcements, calendar, document libraries, photo libraries, workflows, etc.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• SharePoint Server 2007 installed and running properly (see Part 1)
• Permission to access Central Administration (see farm level access in Part 1)
• Basic knowledge of websites and website architecture
• Some experience designing information architecture, taxonomy and content management is helpful

1. During the installation of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 (see Part 1), you have created an intranet web application containing a portal site collection and applied a collaboration portal template. To view the website, go to http://intranet/pages/default.aspx . (Substitute whatever you named your host header in part 1.)
   
   Note: A portal site collection is also referred to as a root-level site collection. There can only be one portal per web app.
2. The number one decision is whether to use portal sub-sites or top site collections, or a combination of both, for your company intranet. Two considerations are data storage and permissions.
   
   First, let's define portal sub-sites and top site collections. Think of a tree with the portal site collection at the top. Below it are portal sub-sites. For example, Human Resources, Finance, Information Systems, etc. Below each portal sub-site are web pages. For example, the Human Resources sub-site contains web pages for the employee handbook, forms, medical benefits, social events, etc.
   
   The navigation structure may look something like this:
   
   * Portal Home
   
   * * Human Resources (Sub-site)
   - - - Employee Handbook
   - - - Forms
   - - - Medical Benefits
   - - - Social Events
   
   * * Finance (Sub-site)
   - - - Web page 1
   - - - Web page 2
   
   * * Information Systems (Sub-site)
   - - - Web page 1
   - - - Web page 2
   
   Note: When I say web page, that could include the following things: a nested sub-site; any SharePoint site like wikis, blogs, document workspaces, meeting workspaces; any SharePoint list like document libraries, picture libraries, web pages, events, discussions, surveys; any SharePoint item like files, calendar items, contacts, customers, images; and more.
3. Alternatively, a top site collection is separate from the portal and its sub-sites. Top site collections do not appear in the portal global navigation. The portal global navigation will not appear in the top site collection. Note: You may add any of these links manually or by using features.
   
   Actually, a top site collection works just like if it were its own portal. For example, Human Resources would be a top site. Below it are web pages. For example, the Human Resources top site contains web pages for the employee handbook, forms, medical benefits, social events, etc.
   
   The navigation structure may look something like this:
   
   * Human Resources (Top Site)
   - - - Employee Handbook
   - - - Forms
   - - - Medical Benefits
   - - - Social Events
4. You may be wondering why even bother with top sites, when portal sub-sites seem so much easier because SharePoint automatically handles all of the navigation and links for you.
   
   However, if you are a good SharePoint architect, you will be thinking ahead and planning for future growth. With this mindset, you may already foresee some trouble ahead if you only use portal sub-sites for your company intranet. This is because a company intranet can grow very large very quickly. How can one database hold everything? How can one admin person manage everything? These are very good questions.
   
   The advantage of creating additional top site collections is they will have their own global navigation and own database, and allow sub-sites to be added. This is recommended for independence, maintenance and growth. This is ideal for departmental or team sites which each need their own site collection admin person. The disadvantage is that the global navigation of the portal is not visible across all top sites, unlike portal sub-sites. In other words, each team site will not be visible on the global navigation link bar. (This drawback may be resolved using features but is more complicated.)
   
   For simplicity, a company intranet site should use one top site collection containing portal sub-sites. In this way the intranet site will house general company information and ensure the integrity of the intranet taxonomy. But, do not go this route if you foresee your company intranet becoming very large. Consider setting up top site collections instead.
5. SharePoint Diagram Let's continue and see how to setup a sub-site as well as a top site collection.
   
   Please see the Microsoft Planning Part 2 document and related Visio model for details about web apps, portals, top sites, databases and more.
   
   Click here or on the links at the bottom of this article:
   
   Document: http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/
   library/8a911115-de8a-4cf3-9701-f5ba78fa8bfc1033.mspx?mfr=true
   
   Visio Model: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/
   ?LinkId=82151&clcid=0x409
   
   Above is a sample of the diagram.
6. Login to Central Administration
   
   On the server box, use the start menu to open Central Administration. Or if you are a farm admin person, use the browser address from any computer and login, such as http://servername:port/default.aspx . We use the following address: http://intranet:3447/default.aspx or http://bldkqstl92:3447/default.aspx
7. Create a portal sub-site (aka. site below the portal)
   
   Portal sub-sites can inherit the global navigation of the portal.
   
   If you are the portal admin person, you can manage the portal site collection, including adding new portal sub-sites. To create a sub-site below the portal, from anywhere on the website, click Site Actions > Create Site. However, for greater control and flexibility, you can click Site Actions > Manage Site Content and Structure and then click in the tree where you want to create a new site.
   
   For portal sub-sites, the new site will appear on the global navigation bar at the top. Unless the ‘include sub-sites’ setting is unchecked on the navigation settings page for the portal website. To edit the navigation, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify Navigation.
8. Create a top site collection (aka. second-tier or top-level site collection, directly below the portal)
   
   Top site collections can have their own global navigation and content databases. It is recommended to only allow one portal administrator (sharepoint admin, web app admin or portal admin) the ability to create new top site collections, and not allow self-service site creation for other people. This is so content databases and managed paths are used properly, and insures the integrity of the intranet taxonomy.
   
   You must be the farm admin person to create a new top site collection. From Central Administration, click the App tab and Create Site collection. Fill out the form and choose your new managed path from the list. Click OK. Note: Be sure your content databases and managed paths are setup prior, see below.
9. Create a sub-site (aka. site below the top site or parent site)
   
   Sub-sites can inherit the global navigation of its parent site collection. Sub-sites are also a handy way to name one person as the sub-site admin, without giving them permission to manage the entire site collection.
   
   If you are the site collection admin person, you can manage the site collection, including adding new sub-sites. From any page in the website, click the Site Actions > Create and then click Sites and Workspaces link to add a new sub-site. Fill out the form then click OK.
   
   For sub-sites of a top site, the new site will appear on the global navigation bar at the top. To edit the navigation, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Top Link Bar.
10. Content Database Splitting
    
    The content of each site collection is stored in a content database. You can make all site collections share one database or each can have their own. The latter is recommended for independence, maintenance and growth. However, all site collections in the web app share one content database by default. Since individual databases are not created for each site collection automatically, you must do it manually.
    
    So far you have created a portal site with its associated database, and you have not created any top site collections yet. Since you plan for each top site collection to have its own database, you must first set the portal database max sites to 1 and warning to 0. You must be the farm admin person to do this. From Central Administration, click Apps > Content Databases then click the name of the database to edit it and set the max sites to 1 and warning to 0. Now, no more site collections can be stored in this database and you will be forced to create a new database for the next new top site collection.
    
    When you know ahead of time that you want a top site collection to have its own content database, then you must first create the database before creating the top site collection. When you know that you do not want more than one top site collection to share a database then you must set the max sites to 1 and warning to 0 for each database.
    
    To create a new database, click Apps > Content Databases > Add Content Database then fill out the form and name it the same name that you will call your new top site. Be sure to set the max sites to 1 and warning to 0.
    
    Then create the new top site collection and it should automatically be created with the new database. Since it is the first site that is created and stored in this database, any new sites created after that will not be allowed to use it.
    
    Note: If you already have several existing site collections sharing a database and you decide to separate them into their own databases after the fact, you should follow the database moving instructions at: http://blogs.technet.com/corybu/archive/
    2007/06/21/sharepoint-site-migration-and-balancing-growth.aspx
11. Managed Paths
    
    When you create a new top site collection, the default path is web app URL/sites/newsitecollectionname . It is recommended to remove the ‘sites’ part for simplicity before creating the new site collection. This can be done by using managed paths by the farm admin person.
    
    From Central Administration, click App tab and Define Managed paths. Select the web app. Fill out the form and name the path the same name that you will call your new top site collection. Select explicit inclusion, which causes the ‘sites’ part to disappear when creating the new site collection. Click OK.
    
    For example, we created ‘thesystemsgroup’ managed path for the teamsite portal. This allows the URL for the new site-collection to be http://teamsite.beryl.net/thesystemsgroup .
    
    You may now proceed to creating a new top site collection.
12. See the diagram above to continue building our the portal with sub-sites, top site collections and databases.
    
    When you are finished, you will have a fully functional SharePoint intranet portal website that is built to withstand future growth.