Moving Path Based to Host Named Site Collections

發行項
09/09/2013

This post illustrates a problem with detaching content databases that contain site collections restored from path-based site collections to host named site collections.

Background

The recommendation for SharePoint 2013 is to use a single web application and leverage host named site collections. In a previous post, I wrote about What Every SharePoint Admin Needs to Know About Host Named Site Collections. In that post, I showed one approach for moving an existing path-based site collection to a host-header site collection. This is invaluable if you have too many web applications in your farm and need to consolidate the site collections while preserving URLs. It’s also invaluable to improving the health of your farm as I have seen multiple farms that suffered performance issues that were resolved by consolidating web applications to host-named site collections.

As a reminder, I provided the following sample script:

 Backup-SPSite https://server_name/sites/site_name -Path C:\Backup\site_name.bak 
Remove-SPSite –Identity https://server_name/sites/site_name –Confirm:$False 
Restore-SPSite https://www.example.com -Path C:\Backup\site_name.bak -HostHeaderWebApplication https://server_name

This works, and the site collection is restored successfully with the new host header. However, there are some additional considerations you’ll want to be aware of.

Existing Web Application With the Same Url

The first problem is that the site collection may be at the root of a web application with the same URL that you are trying to move to a host named site collection. For example, I have a web application, Intranet.Contoso.lab, that contains a single root site collection that is path-based. I want to move this to a host named site collection, but that URL is already in use. The fix is to delete the web application first. Don’t worry, you have the option of preserving the content database just in case something goes wrong, in which case you could create a new web application using the existing content database and you’ll be back to where you started. Here is a function that you can use to move your path-based site collection to a host-named site collection and optionally delete the existing web application while preserving the original content database.

 function Move-PathBasedToHNSC(
    [string]$siteUrl, 
    [string]$backupFilePath, 
    [string]$pathBasedWebApplication, 
    [bool]$deletePathBasedWebApplication, 
    [string]$hostHeaderUrl,
    [string]$hostHeaderWebApplication, 
    [string]$contentDatabase)
{
    Backup-SPSite $siteUrl -Path $backupFilePath

    if($deletePathBasedWebApplication)
    {
        #If the HNSC uses the same URL as an existing web application,
        #the web application must be removed
        Remove-SPWebApplication $pathBasedWebApplication -RemoveContentDatabases:$false -DeleteIISSite:$true
    }
    else
    {
        #Not removing the web application, so just remove the site collection
        Remove-SPSite -Identity $siteUrl -Confirm:$false
    }

    Restore-SPSite $hostHeaderUrl -Path $backupFilePath 
        -HostHeaderWebApplication $hostHeaderWebApplication -ContentDatabase $contentDatabase    
}

Move-PathBasedToHNSC -siteUrl https://HNSCMoveTest2.Contoso.lab 
    -backupFilePath "C:\Backup\HNSCMoveTest2.bak" 
    -pathBasedWebApplication https://HNSCMoveTest2.contoso.lab 
    -deletePathBasedWebApplication $true 
    -hostHeaderUrl https://HNSCMoveTest2.contoso.lab 
    -hostHeaderWebApplication https://spdev 
    -ContentDatabase WSS_Content_HNSC

Before I run the script, here’s what the list of web applications looks like:

After running the script, the web application is gone, and I now see the host named site collection in the new web application and in the content database that I specified.

As the administrator, I’m happy because there’s one less web application to maintain and, likely, the performance of my farm will increase a bit.

Detaching (Dismounting) the Content Database

Here’s where the weird things start happening. You can detach a content database so that it’s not serving any content, but the database is still in SQL Server. You might do this for a number of reasons, such as upgrades. Let’s try detaching the content database using PowerShell:

 Dismount-SPContentDatabase WSS_Content_HNSC

Now we want to attach it again.

 Mount-SPContentDatabase "WSS_Content_HNSC" -WebApplication https://spdev

Go back to the browser and hit refresh, and after some time the host-named site collection will render correctly. However, we have a few problems. First, go look at the site collections again in Central Administration. You might see that the site collection is gone! We run some PowerShell to see what’s up:

PS C:\> get-spwebapplication https://spdev | get-spsite -limit all

Url

---
https://spdev

Huh? Where’d my site collection go? If we go into the content database, we can see the site is still there. However, the site doesn’t seem to actually be there. I tried Get-SPSite, even stsadm –o EnumSites, and the site isn’t showing anywhere. Thanks to my colleague, Joe Rodgers, for showing me the fix.

 $db = Get-SPContentDatabase WSS_Content_HNSC
$db.RefreshSitesInConfigurationDatabase()

This refreshes the sites in the site map in the configuration database, at which point the site collection appears again in PowerShell and in the UI.

 PS C:\> get-spwebapplication https://spdev | get-spsite -limit all

Url                                                    
---                                                    
https://spdev                                           
https://hnscmovetest.contoso.lab                        
https://hnscmovetest2.contoso.lab                       
https://hnscmovetest3.contoso.lab

If you are upgrading and have used this technique to move path-based to host-named site collections, I would definitely recommend keeping this in mind. Note that this behavior does not seem to happen when you create a new host-named site collection or a new path-based site collection, it only seems to happen when you move an existing path-based site collection to become a host-named site collection. I also only tested this in SharePoint 2010.

Summary

SharePoint scales by having many site collections instead of many web applications, and Host named site collections are a fantastic way to get there without changing URLs. Honestly, the bit about detaching and attaching the content database and losing the information in the site map seems like unintended behavior to me. I haven’t tried this in SharePoint 2013 to see if the problem reproduces there, I’d be interested to see if anyone reproduces this in an SP2013 environment. If so, leave comments!

Comments

Anonymous
September 09, 2013
Hi Kirk,Thanks for the infoRegards,Mahmoud Hamed
Anonymous
September 10, 2013
FYI - the script assumes that the content database already exists. If the content database does not exist, you'll need to add the following immediately before Restore-SPSite:New-SPContentDatabase $contentDatabase -WebApplication $hostHeaderWebApplication
Anonymous
August 12, 2014
Hi Kirk,The Info which you have explained is very much appreciated. I have some doubt which i need to clear. In my case i have to move SP 2010 Path Based site collection to SP 2013 HNSC under Web Application which already contain root site collection and many other HNSC. I am trying to mount the SP 2010 Path Based Site Collection under Web Collection but it does not allow me to mount coz there is already a root site collection. I need to create HNSC under Web Application. I even tried to delete the Root Site Collection but still i was not able to create HNSC, when it get restored it shows Web Application URL for Eg. web application URL https://contoso.test.com when i delete the Root Site Collection and mount SP 2010 path based Site Collection which carried URL http://azure.test.com it shows me same URL as root site collection https://contoso.test.com i can see all contain but i am not to make HNSC as http://azure.test.com .Can you please help me in this regards..I hope you understand what i am trying to explain you :)regards,Aasif
Anonymous
August 12, 2014
@Aasif - upgrade the farm from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013. Once that is complete, then work on moving HNSC. I don't believe that we support backing up a SharePoint 2010 site collection and restoring it to SharePoint 2013. You have to update the databases. If you continue to have issues, I suggest filing a support ticket for assistance.
Anonymous
September 05, 2014
Hello Kirk,I'm having an issue creating the HNSC with the same name after the web application is deleted. It says that the site name is still in use, but I've verified that this does not exist anywhere (including AAMs and bindings). Is there something I need to do to "refresh" the fact that the web app is deleted? Thanks
Anonymous
October 16, 2014
Hi Kirk,I am migrating such individual root site collections to single web app as Host-named site collections. After running the script , the root site collection DB gets merged to the main Web Application DB and it's working fine as expected. Just curios to know why we need to perform the steps mentioned in "Detaching (Dismounting) the Content Database". Why this root Site collection DB again needs to be attached to the main web app as main web app already has its own DB? Thanks
Anonymous
October 28, 2014
I guess I am still missing some general concept here. I have 2 farms. One uses path-based SC, the other I would like to use HNSC. Fine.I backup /sandbox SC from farm 1 (whoever set it up did not choose to use /sites/... as a wildcard path) and then I try your method to restore. The only way it will work is if I allow it to overwrite the root HNSC on farm 2. I cannot restore /sandbox --> /sandbox. Here is my command:restore-spsite "http://sp2013dev.acme.com" -Path C:UsersJDoeDownloadssandbox.bak -HostHeaderWebApplication "http://myvm-sp2013dev" -ContentDatabase "SharePoint_SandBox_Content"I pre-created a content database with the same name in farm 2, which is why I specify a content db in my commend. I am wondering if there's a big caveat to your method that maybe got left out inadvertantly, like, maybe, this is just the first step in moving the SC. That we first have to restore to an empty web app AS a HNSC and then re-export that back out and import into the final destination?
Anonymous
October 28, 2014
OK, in a moment of clarity (or confusion) I see the point I was missing. What I desire to do is MERGE multiple site collections. Basically, I was trying to fit two pennies into the same slot.I will go forth and try to sin no more :)
Anonymous
July 07, 2015
Just wanted to leave a quick note here. With the February 2015 cumulative update for SharePoint 2013 you can use SPSite.Rename(Uri newUri) if you're staying in the same web app/content database. Hotfix: support.microsoft.com/.../2956086

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