This post is about Creating SSL Web Application, Setting up Personal Sites and OneDrive and Fast Site Collection Configuration
Creating SSL Web Applications
As we had ran the SharePoint Farm Configuration Wizard to setup this farm, a single web application was created on port 80. This is not that we want to do. Let’s re-create 3 web application
1. https://portal16.contoso.com
2. https://mysite16.contoso.com
3. https://sp2016bi2/
All of these web application will use singe application pool. As a first step I will I will delete the SharePoint – 80 web application. As we are creating 3 web applications I will be using PowerShell. I will delete the web application with Database Yes and Delete IIS Web Sites Yes.
Creating No Host Header Web Application. This web application is required if you want to use SharePoint Add-Ins. This web application does not use Host Header configuration. Portal and Mysite web application will use Host Header.
First I will create a new managed account for Web application app pools
$Credentials = Get-Credential
$ApplicationPoolAccount = New-SPManagedAccount -Credential $Credentials
$AuthProvider = New-SPAuthenticationProvider
$DBName = “WSS_Content_NoHostHeader”
$Port = “443”
$ApplicationPool = “SPWebAppsPool”
$ApplicationPoolAccount = Get-SPManagedAccount “contoso\spwebapps”
$Name = “No Host Header”
$Url = “https://SP2016BI2”
$DatabaseName = “WSS_Content”
New-SPWebApplication -Name $Name -ApplicationPool $ApplicationPool `
-ApplicationPoolAccount $ApplicationPoolAccount -SecureSocketsLayer -Port $Port `
-Url $Url -AuthenticationProvider $AuthProvider -DatabaseName $DatabaseName `
-AuthenticationMethod Kerberos -Verbose
Let’s create a new site collection.
New-SPSite -Url https://sp2016bi2 -Template STS#0 -Name “No Host Header” -Description “No Host Header” -OwnerAlias contoso\spadmin -Verbose
Before we test the site we have to import the SSL Certificate in IIS and assign it to our web application. Open IIS Manager – Click on Server Node – Server certificates.
I copied the certificate from domain controller. I will post later on how to request new certificate using Certificate Authority.
Click Import – Browse and select the pfx file and enter the password and click OK.
Double click on the certificate to confirm its path is valid.
Expand Sites – Click on No Host Header – Click Bindings from Actions – Edit Site – Click Edit – Select you SSL Certificate from Drop down – Click OK then Close. Then Minimize IIS.
Let’s browse the site – Type https://ServerName for me it is https://sp2016bi2/. You will get SSL Certificate error as our certificate is wildcard.
Now Let’s create the Portal Web Application. The script will be different this time.
$AuthProvider = New-SPAuthenticationProvider
$Port = “443”
$ApplicationPool = “SPWebAppsPool”
$ApplicationPoolAccount = Get-SPManagedAccount “contoso\spwebapps”
$Name = “Portal16”
$HostHeader = “$Name.contoso.com”
$DatabaseName = “WSS_Content_$Name”
$Url = “https://$HostHeader”
New-SPWebApplication -Name $Name -ApplicationPool $ApplicationPool `
-SecureSocketsLayer -Port $Port -Url $Url -AuthenticationProvider $AuthProvider `
-HostHeader $HostHeader -DatabaseName $DatabaseName -AuthenticationMethod Kerberos -Verbose
Now let’s create the site collection.
New-SPSite -Url $Url -Template STS#0 -Name $Name -Description $Name -OwnerAlias contoso\spadmin -Verbose
Now let’s browse the site collection, but before that I need to make a DNS entry. I logged into my Domain Controller, open DNS Manager – Expand Forward Lookup Zone – contoso.com – right click and choose New Host A or AAA
I also added another for mysites.
Now come back to SharePoint Box and in PowerShell or command window perform
ipconfig /flushdns
Then try to ping both Portal16 and MySites16
Now type https://portal16.contoso.com/ in browser. Once asked for credentials, type user and password.
Now let’s create the my site host –here the My Site host template will change. You can find about templates by running the following command.
Get-SPWebTemplate | ? Title -Like “*My Site*”
$AuthProvider = New-SPAuthenticationProvider
$Port = “443”
$ApplicationPool = “SPWebAppsPool”
$ApplicationPoolAccount = Get-SPManagedAccount “contoso\spwebapps”
$Name = “MySites16”
$HostHeader = “$Name.contoso.com”
$DatabaseName = “WSS_Content_$Name”
$Url = “https://$HostHeader”
New-SPWebApplication -Name $Name -ApplicationPool $ApplicationPool `
-SecureSocketsLayer -Port $Port -Url $Url -AuthenticationProvider $AuthProvider `
-HostHeader $HostHeader -DatabaseName $DatabaseName -AuthenticationMethod Kerberos -Verbose
New-SPSite -Url $Url -Template SPSMSITEHOST#0 -Name “My Site Host” -Description “My Site Host” -OwnerAlias contoso\spadmin -Verbose
Updating Personal Site
You will notice a change in the output. Before we browse the site, let fix a few things.
1. Enable Self Service Site Creation
a. Application management
b. Self-Service Site Collection Management
c. Select My Site Web application
d. Click On
e. Select Personal Site Quota
f. Click OK
2. Create Managed Path for Personal
a. Click on Manage Web application
b. Select My Sites and Click on Managed Paths
c. Type Personal and Add. Click OK
3. Update My Site Configuration
a. Click Application Management – Manage Service Application – User Profile Service Application – Setup My Site
b. Change My Site Host Location to https://mysites16.contoso.com
c. Change Personal Site Location to personal
d. Click on Check names – Click OK.
Click on Newsfeed – You might have refresh a couple of times to finish this process.
I am facing a newsfeed issue right now but will give it few minutes to warm up.
The reason for this error was the feed identifier property of my user profile was referring to my old port 80 web application. I cleared the value and deleted the personal site of spadmin and Adam barr accounts that I tested before, using the script on next page.
Once I did that I saw the new message. We have to wait for few minutes to move to next step.
The issue was not resolved then as I was getting the following error in ULS.
MBUtilities.UserProfileFeedIdentifier Exception:[System.IO.FileNotFoundException: https://mysites16.contoso.com/personal/spadmin/Lists/PublishedFeed —> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.GetMetadataForUrl(String bstrUrl, Int32 METADATAFLAGS, Guid& pgListId, Int32& plItemId, Int32& plType, Object& pvarFileOrFolder)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.GetMetadataForUrl(String bstrUrl, Int32 METADATAFLAGS, Guid& pgListId, Int32& plItemId, Int32& plType, Object& pvarFileOrFolder)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.GetList(String strUrl)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Microfeed.MBUtilities.GetPublishedFeedListPrivate(SPWeb web, String relativeUrl)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Microfeed.MBUtilities.GetPublishedFeedListPrivate(SPWeb web, String relativeUrl)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Microfeed.MBUtilities.UserProfileFeedIdentifier(SPWeb web, Guid partitionID)]
I logged into PowerShell ISE as my Farm Account and executed the following script.
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite(“https://mysites16.contoso.com/”);
$ServiceContext = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPServiceContext]::GetContext($site);
$ProfileManager = new-object Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager($ServiceContext);
$profile = $ProfileManager.GetUserProfile(“contoso\spadmin”);
Remove-SPSite $profile.PersonalSite -Confirm:$false
$profile.CreatePersonalSite()
#Repeat the above script for any other user.
The result is below.
To Fix the login Prompt issue please add *.contoso.com in your browser intranet zone. I like leaving it like that for testing different accounts.
FAST Site Collection Creation
I am not sure if you have notice something new popping up in the list of Site collections. If you go to PowerShell ISE and type Get-SPSite –Limit All, Check the output
Right in the middle is sitemaster site collection. Microsoft has add a new capability in SharePoint Server 2016 which improves the site collection creation performance by reducing the feature activation overhead. Last year I had to create a PowerShell script which runs overnight to create 50,000 personal sites for one of our client. It took very long time to finish. Using Fast Site Collection Creation method the same will be done very quickly by using SPSite.Copy to copy elements inside database, which saves time. The process is 3 steps and is only available with Personal Site creation.
1. Enable the Fast Site Creation using Enable-SPWebTempateforSiteMaster
2. Create a new Site Master for a content database and template using New-SPSiteMaster
3. Create a new Site using New-SPSite with Additional parameter –CreateFromSiteMaster.
I ran the Get-SPWebTemplatesEnabledForSiteMaster cmdlet and saw that it is already enabled for all personal site templates.
Now to find the master I got the list of content databases and passed the mysite database to Get-SPSiteMaster
Get-SPContentDatabase | Select Name, ID
Get-SPSiteMaster -ContentDatabase WSS_Content_MySites16
If you want to find out what features will be activated you can find them using the script below
$Master = Get-SPSiteMaster -ContentDatabase WSS_Content_MySites16
foreach($Feature in $Master.FeaturesToActivateOnCopy)
{
$AFeature = Get-SPFeature -Identity $Feature.FeatureId
Write-Host $AFeature.ID $AFeature.DisplayName
}
To find more information go to Post from Bill Baer
