Create a site collection in SharePoint Server
APPLIES TO: 
2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition 
SharePoint in Microsoft 365
A site collection is a grouping of websites under a common top-level site that have the same owner and share administration settings, for example, permissions. When you create a site collection, a top-level site is automatically created in the site collection. You can then create one or more subsites below the top-level site. For info about creating site collections in SharePoint, see Create a site collection.
Before you begin
Before you create a site collection, ensure that the following prerequisites are available:
A web application in which to create the site collection.
A quota template, if you plan to define values that specify how much data can be stored in a site collection and the storage size that triggers an email alert to the site collection administrator. For more information, see Create, edit, and delete quota templates in SharePoint Server.
A custom managed wildcard path, if you plan to create the site collection somewhere other than under the root (/) directory or the /sites/ directory. For more information, see Define managed paths in SharePoint Server.
Create a site collection by using Central Administration
You typically use the SharePoint Central Administration website to create a site collection in a stand-alone deployment.
To create a site collection by using Central Administration
Verify that you have the following administrative credentials:
- To create a site collection, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group on the computer that is running the SharePoint Central Administration website.
Open Central Administration and in the Application Management section, click Create site collections.
On the Create Site Collection page, in the Web Application section, if the web application in which you want to create the site collection is not selected, on the Web Application menu, click Change Web Application, and then click the web application in which you want to create the site collection.
In the Title and Description section, type the title and description for the site collection.
In the Web Site Address section, select the path to use for your URL (for example, a wildcard inclusion path such as /sites/, or the root directory (/).
If you select a wildcard inclusion path, you must also type the site name to use in your site's URL.
In the Template Selection section, in the Select a template list, choose the tab you want for the site collection ( Collaboration, Enterprise, or Publishing), and then select the template that you want to use for the top-level site in the site collection. You can also click the Custom tab to create an empty site and apply a template later.
A description for the template that you select appears below the list of templates.
In the Primary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name (in the form DOMAIN\username) for the user who will be the site collection administrator.
In the Secondary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name for the secondary administrator of the site collection.
Assigning a secondary site collection administrator is a best practice to ensure that someone can manage the site collection when a primary site collection administrator is not available.
If you are using quotas to manage storage for site collections, in the Quota Template section, click a template in the Select a quota template list and then click OK.
Create a site collection by using Microsoft PowerShell
You typically use Microsoft PowerShell to create a site collection when you want to automate the task, which is common in enterprises.
To create a site collection by using PowerShell
Verify that you have the following memberships:
securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.
db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.
local Administrators group on the server on which you are running the PowerShell cmdlets.
Open the SharePoint Management Shell.
At the command prompt, type the following commands:
Get-SPWebTemplate$template = Get-SPWebTemplate "STS#0"New-SPSite -Url "<URL for the new site collection>" -OwnerAlias "<domain\user>" -Template $templateThis example retrieves a list of all available site templates and then creates a site collection by using the Team Site template. For more information, see New-SPSite and Get-SPWebTemplate.
We recommend that you use Microsoft PowerShell when performing command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.