This is a straight forward process two main steps to allow you the ability to create a New Database, and then create a Site Collection that will populate it. This process will be done via Central Administration, an alternate option is to use PowerShell or STSADM commands however I would like to do it this way to limit risk or questions.
For this scenario we are wanting to create a Records Center Site Collection with its own Content DB, of security, and governance. We also plan on doing a lot of custom SQL Reporting and BI against it so keeping it separate from the other Content DB’s makes sense.
Creating the Database for Customer Service
On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, click Application Management.
In the Databases section, click Manage content databases.
On the Manage Content Databases page, click Add a content database.
On the Add Content Database page we are going to do the following tasks:
Specify the Web application for the new database. Make sure you don’t select the wrong one, because you don’t want to have to redo or migrate this after the fact.
Specify database server to host the new database (hopefully you are using SQL Aliasing, if not you should).
Give the Database a Name, I like to use a naming convention for all databases for easy visibility. Common naming convention is below:
WEBAPPNAME_SITECOLLECTIONNAME_CONTENT_DB
Big fan of all caps to limit confusion and make it visibly easier to read.
Next choose your Database Authentication: Unless you are doing something special the 99% rule is Windows Authentication
Next is Database Capacity Settings:
We are going to leave this default for right now until the Site Collection is created, we will then come back and make a change to this. By default, this is 2,000.
We are going to leave this default for right now until the Site Collection is created, we will then come back and make a change to this. By default, this is 5,000.
Click OK, and wait patiently. Tada…..you now should see them in the Manage Content Databases window.
Creating the Site Collection for Customer Service
Starting from the Central Administration site follow the 11 steps below to create a New Site Collection.
On the Central Administration Web site, go to 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.
You will see we went with Corporate Records (please make this intuitive to your portal)
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.
You will see we when all LOWER CASE, no spaces, but still intuitive. IF you are considering SEO for your portal, make sure it matches your SEO strategy.
In the Template Selection section, in the Select a template list, select the template that you want to use for the top-level site in the site collection.
In the Primary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name (in the form DOMAINusername) for the user who will be the site collection administrator.
This is a MUST, please make sure you provide a Secondary Site Collection Administrator section, type the user name for the secondary administrator of the site collection. Designating 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 present.
Quota Template section: We are not defining any quotas for these site collections, if want to have a quota applied, do this before you start this process. Going back and applying on later is possible, but an extra step.
Click OK.
Resetting the Databases
Go back to the Content Database overview to see that the new Site Collection has been created in the new Content Database:
On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, click Application Management.
In the Databases section, click Manage content databases.
Next click on the Content Database Name, this will open it up for editing.
Adjust “Number of sites before a warning event is generated” and “Maximum number of sites that can be created in this database”
Site Level Warning: 1
Maximum Number of Sites: 2
Save you change.
You ask why did we just go make this change, by doing this we have limited the ability for any new Site Collections to be created this DB, SharePoint likes to round robin Site Collection creation in Content Databases, so if you had both of these set to defaults each time a Site Collection is created by a user, it would just rotate to each Content DB, thus not preserving or maintaining that 1-1 ratio we wanted.
After making this adjustment, new Site Collections are added to the appropriate content database.
Conclusion
So we can do this process by Powershell or STSAdm command, but I wanted to show you how to simply do this via Central Admin. Less risk of fat finger, or having an issue with a script or switch. Hope you enjoyed it.