Getting Started With Host Named Site Collections - PowerShell Script

By -
Well, it's been a while, but I'm finally getting around to really digging deep into SP2013.  As I go through this I figured I'd start putting together a few helper PowerShell Scripts:


Once you've got a SP2013 developer machine created you may want to stand up additional Host Named Site Collections (If you haven't created one yet, use the Critical Path Training guide at http://www.criticalpathtraining.com in the Members section).  I've also included the ability to stand up a new ContentDB for your site collection.

Here's a relatively simple Powershell script to help you with this:



$snapin = Get-PSSnapin | Where-Object { $_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell" }
if($snapin -eq $null)
{
    Write-Host "...loading Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell snapin" -ForegroundColor Gray
    Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
}

 function CreateHNSC($name, $url, $template, $contentdatabasename)
{
    $defaultWebApp = Get-SPWebApplication |
        Where-Object { $_.IisSettings["Default"].ServerBindings[0].Port -eq 80 -and $_.IisSettings["Default"].ServerBindings[0].HostHeader -eq "" }

     if($defaultWebApp){
        $ownerAlias = [Environment]::UserDomainName + "\" + [Environment]::UserName

         if($contentdatabasename)
        {
            Write-Host "Creating new content database '$contentdatabasename'"
            New-SPContentDatabase -Name $contentdatabasename -WebApplication $defaultWebApp
            
            Write-Host "Creating new Host Named Site Collection '$name' at $url (in '$contentdatabasename' content database)"
            New-SPSite -Name $name -Url $url -HostHeaderWebApplication $defaultWebApp -Template $template -OwnerAlias $ownerAlias -ContentDatabase $contentdatabasename
        }
        else
        {
            Write-Host "Creating new Host Named Site Collection '$name' at $url (in default HNSC content database)"
            New-SPSite -Name $name -Url $url -HostHeaderWebApplication $defaultWebApp -Template $template -OwnerAlias $ownerAlias
        }
    }
    else{
        Write-Host "default SP2013 web application was not found" -ForegroundColor Red
    }
}

 #call the function for each host named site colletion you want to create
#with new content db
CreateHNSC  -name "Solutions Site" -url "http://solutions.mydomain.com" -template "DEV#0" -contentdatabasename "WSS_Content_Solutions"

 #to default content db
#CreateHNSC -name "Solutions Site 2" -url "http://solutions2.mydomain.com" -template "DEV#0"

 One thing to remember (and might be worth handling in this script in the future) is that if you're using this to set up HNSCs on a dev machine, you'll need to add the additional hosts to your hosts file or Visual Studio won't recognize your new host.  This appears to be a known bug.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Programmatically Update Page Layouts

By -
I updated my page layouts that I deployed as a feature, but found that I could not overwrite the Layout File. The solution was to add a new page layout and then you would have to associate the new layout with every page on your site that used it. Obviously with a site of any size you'd have a lot of manual work to get this done, so doing it programmatically makes for a much better (and thorough) approach. After you've got your new page layouts, you could do something like this (in your event receiver class): public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) { //replace current page layouts with new page layouts on all pages SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web; SwapPageLayout(web, "FullWidthContentWithTitleV1.aspx", "FullWidthContentWithTitleV2.aspx"); } private void SwapPageLayout(SPWeb web, string oldPageLayoutName, string newPageLayoutName) { PublishingWeb pubWeb = PublishingWeb.GetPu...
Read more

Microsoft Virtualilzation Headaches

By -
As a SharePoint consultant, I am constantly moving from client to client and the best way to develop and test the code, designs and configurations for each client while maintaining complete separation is to virtualize. Since I work for a Microsoft partner, we try to use Microsoft tools and technologies as much as possible, which can be quite frustrating, as you will find out below. I recently started working for a large client with a global presence whose IT policies are well-established, difficult to change and not always up-to-date. In that vein, enter the corporate VPN: it's a web-based signin with a host checker that doesn't support any x64 OS. This prompted me, running Win 7 x64, to try to get a co-worker's Hyper-V Win2k3 x86 MOSS VM and run it in Windows Virtual PC . Seems like a logical thing to do, right? I mean, a Microsoft VHD should work, and be able to be imported by other Microsoft tools, right? Wrong. After spending quite a bit of time trying to attach the VHD...
Read more

ERROR: Failed to create feature receiver...

By -
I was working on a STSDev project which deployed a feature with a feature receiver. I had the feature working without the FeatureReceiver but as soon as I added the FeatureReceiver related attributes to my <Feature> element I got the following error: Failed to create feature receiver object from assembly "Org.Project.Solution, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=c632353d405b3209", type "Org.Project.Solution.MyFeature.FeatureReceiver" for feature 6a9b2358-ea4e-486d-a4e4-4f813c52ce88: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: type at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFeatureDefinition.get_ReceiverObject() After much digging around I discovered that STSDEV's Solution config file refers to a namespace as well as the dll. My FeatureReceiver's namespace was not prefixed with the right namespace So just...
Read more