SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

On a recent project we created a small SharePoint development farm using AutoSPInstaller.

The farm created perfectly, the Portal was working, UPS was working, mysites were working, all was good.

The My Site host Web app had been created on port 8080 with the URL http://ServerName/:8080/

We then decided to move this to a DNS addressable location with a (slightly)  more user friendly URL of

http://DevMySite.domain.local on port 80

I looked at extending the mysite host Web Application, but I decided to create new Web Application with a host header value instead.

The first step is to create a new Web Application with the appropriate value in the Host Header field

Make sure your Public URL is the same as the DNS A record

For this install I’m using an Alias for SQL, I like to add the word ‘Alias’ just to remind you in 6 months time how you built a system.

I’m also creating another content database, but if you have personal sites in an existing content DB, we can deal with that as well.

Now that our new web application has been created on port 80..

…we need to put in a root site collection, the name does not really matter but I used My Site Host

this needs to use the My Site Host Enterprise template.

Don’t forget to pick the Personal Site quota template

Once your site collection has been created, head over to your UPS and find the Setup My Sites link

The only thing you need to change here is the My Site Host location value, make this the URL of the new Web application you have created.

We are almost finished, run a quick IIS reset and try to create a mysite, you might get the error below, as the managed path personal is the location used to navigate to mysites, but you can change it to anything you want.

So head back over to your CA site and add the personal managed path to the new web application.

If you try to create a mysite now, you might get a different error, as each mysite is actually its own site collection.

So head back to CA and switch on Self-Service Site Collection Creation in your new Web Application.

Your new My Site host should be working.

If you want to bring in any mysites that you have created on another web app, go to CA-> Application Management –> Manage Content Databases.

Hit the Add a content database link

Pick the correct Web Application and enter the content database name that the other my sites exist in:

NOTE: The database you attach here cannot be attached to another web application in the same farm, but you can have more than one content database attached to any one web application.

Happy SharePointing !