Set up My Sites (SharePoint Server

1 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM Set up My Sites (SharePoint Server 2010) Published: May 12, 2010 This article describes how to set up My Sites in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Like other tasks in SharePoint Server, there are multiple ways to complete a task. This topic provides one ordered task with prerequisites and procedures to help you set up My Sites in your enterprise. Before you set up My Sites, ensure that you understand the concepts and terminology in My Sites overview (SharePoint Server 2010) 1 and Plan for My Sites (SharePoint Server 2010) 2. Additionally, ensure that your system is running either the Standard or Enterprise version of SharePoint Server 2010. We recommend that you perform all of the procedures in the order listed for best results, although not all of them are required. In this article: Prerequisites Create a My Site host site collection Add a wildcard inclusion managed path to the Web application Connect the Web application to service applications Enable self-service site creation for the Web application Configure My Site settings for the User Profile service application Enable the User Profile Service Activity Feed Job Next Steps Prerequisites Because My Sites have dependencies on other service applications and features in SharePoint Server, ensure that you meet the prerequisites in this section before you perform the procedures in this task. Note: My Sites are hosted by a Web application and rely on a User Profile service application. Both are described in this section. We highly recommend that you also have a Managed Metadata service application and a Search service application to use with My Sites, but neither are required. However, without these services, some My Sites functionality will be affected. For more information, see Related service applications 3 in the "Plan for My Sites" topic. Web application Although you can use an existing Web application, for optimal performance and security, we recommend that you create the My Site host site collection in a dedicated Web application that has a distinct root

2 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM URL. For more information, see Create a Web application (SharePoint Server 2010) 4. Important: If a My Site host site collection was created during initial deployment and configuration, we recommend that you do not use it because it was created in the default Web application. Delete this site collection, and create a new Web application that is dedicated to hosting My Sites. Then create a new My Site host site collection in the dedicated Web application. User Profile service application and profile synchronization Ensure that you have a User Profile service application that you want to use for My Sites. If you do not, follow the steps in Create a User Profile Service application 5 to create one. Important: Although the Create New User Profile service application dialog box requests information in the My Site Host URL and Personal Site Location sections, for this task, remove any default values and leave those fields blank when you create the User Profile service application. Additionally, you can select any of the options in Site Naming Format. These settings will be configured separately later in this task. Optionally, configure profile synchronization if you want to synchronize user and group profile information that is stored in the SharePoint Server 2010 profile database with profile information that is stored in a directory service or business system. For more information, see Plan for profile synchronization (SharePoint Server 2010) 6. Create a My Site host site collection The My Site host site collection is a site collection that uses the Enterprise site template called My Site Host. This site collection must be created in the Web application that you want to host My Sites. Generally, this site collection can be created at the root path of the Web application, although it can be created as an explicit inclusion managed path deeper in the URL as long as there is a site collection created at the Web application root. For more information about selecting the path for the My Site host collection, see My Sites architecture 7 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. To create a My Site host site collection To create a My Site host site collection, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site or a service application administrator for the services related to My Sites. If you are a service application administrator, you must also have permission to create site collections in the Web application that you dedicate to host My Sites. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Application Management and then click Create site collections. The Create Site Collection page opens. In Web Application, ensure that the selected Web application is the Web application that you want

3 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM to host My Sites. If it is not, expand the list and then click Change Web Application. The Select Web Application dialog box opens and you can select a different Web application. In Title and Description, type a title and description for the site collection. In Web Site Address, select the URL where you want this site collection created. Generally, you should use the default path (which displays as / in the user interface), which is the root of the Web application. For more information about this path, see My Sites architecture 7 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. In Template Selection, select the Enterprise tab and then click My Site Host. 7. 8. In Primary Site Collection Administrator, and optionally in Secondary Site Collection Administrator, type an account in the format domain\user_name to specify an administrator for the site collection. Optionally, in Quota Template, select a quota template for the My Site host site collection. This quota template does not affect the individual site collections that users create for their My Sites. For more information, see Planning for storage requirements 8 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. 9. Copy this site collection URL for later reference. Add a wildcard inclusion managed path to the Web application The wildcard inclusion managed path is the path under which separate site collections are created the first time each user clicks their My Content link. This functionality is available only when self-service site creation is also enabled. For more information about managed paths, see Define managed paths (SharePoint Server 2010) 9. To add a wildcard inclusion managed path to the Web application To add managed paths, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Application Management and then click Manage Web applications. The Web Applications page opens. Select the Web application that you created to host My Sites. On the Web Applications tab, in the Manage group, click Managed Paths. The Define Managed Paths dialog box opens. In Add a New Path, type a value that you want to append to the URL namespace and select Wildcard inclusion. For example, if your Web application URL is http://mysites.contoso.com/ and you want users' individual site collections created under a path called "personal", type personal in the Path box. Separate My Sites site collections will be created for each user under http://mysites.contoso.com/personal/. 7. Click Add Path, and then click OK. Copy this managed path for later reference. Connect the Web application to service applications The Web application that hosts My Sites must be connected to service applications in SharePoint Server. The User Profile service application is required for My Sites. The Managed Metadata service application and Search service application are highly recommended. For more information, see My Sites architecture 7

4 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM in the "Plan for My Sites" article. Additionally, if you have other SharePoint sites from which you want users to be able to access their My Site and My Profile links from the upper-right corner menu, connect the Web applications of those sites to the User Profile service application also. To connect the Web application to service applications To connect a Web application to a service application, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Application Management and then click Manage Web applications. The Web Applications page opens. Select the Web application that you created to host My Sites. On the Web Applications tab, in the Manage group, click Service Connections. The Configure Service Application Associations dialog box opens. In the Edit the following group of connections list, select Default unless the default group does not already contain the service applications to which you want to connect the Web application. a. If you choose Custom, select any service applications to which you want to connect the Web application, including the User Profile service application, the Managed Metadata service application, and Search service application. Click OK. Enable self-service site creation for the Web application Self-service site creation enables the automatic creation of a separate site collection for each user when they first click the My Content link. To enable self-service site creation for the Web application To enable self-service site creation, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Application Management and then click Manage Web applications. The Web Applications page opens. Select the Web application that you created to host My Sites. On the Web Applications tab, in the Security group, click Self-Service Site Creation. The Self-Service Site Collection Management dialog box opens. Select On. Optionally, select Require secondary contact. Configure My Site settings for the User Profile service application After you have a My Site host site collection and wildcard inclusion managed path configured for My Sites, you can update the My Sites settings in the User Profile service application. Most of these settings are

5 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM configured during initial deployment and only changed infrequently during regular operations afterward. To configure My Site settings for the User Profile service application To configure My Site settings for the User Profile service application, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site or a service application administrator for the User Profile service application. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Application Management and then click Manage service applications. Click the User Profile service application that you connected to the Web application hosting My Sites earlier in this task. The Manage Profile Service page opens. Under My Site Settings, click Setup My Sites. In Preferred Search Center, specify settings for the Search Center to direct users to when they search for people or documents from their My Profile page. If you do not have a search center set up yet, you can skip this step and complete it later. For more information, see Search service application 10 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. In My Site Host, type the URL for the My Site host site collection you created earlier in this task. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1 In Personal Site Location, type the wildcard inclusion managed path you configured earlier in this task. By default, personal is pre-populated in the box. However, if you chose a different path for your wildcard inclusion managed path, replace personal with your path. In Site Naming Format, select a naming format for the My Sites site collections that will be created when users click My Content in their My Sites the first time. For more information about these formats, see My Sites architecture 7 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. In Language Options, specify whether users can select a preferred language for their My Site. The available languages correspond to the language packs installed in the farm. All servers in a farm must have the same language packs. For more information about multilingual sites, see Plan for multilingual sites (SharePoint Server 2010) 11. For more information about language packs, see About language IDs and language packs 12 in the "Deploy language packs" article. In Read Permission Level, specify the users or groups that can view other user's My Sites when they are created. By default, this includes all authenticated users. However, you can select a more specific group or users depending on the needs of your deployment. In My Site E-mail Notifications, specify an e-mail address to use as the sender e-mail address for My Site e-mail notifications. This account does not have to be a real monitored e-mail address. Important: You must add the IP address of the farm's outbound SMTP server to the safe list in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 to prevent My Site e-mail notifications from being sent to the Junk folder. For more information about safe lists in Exchange Server 2010, see Understanding Connection Filtering 13 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=211793). For more information about additional timer jobs for My Sites, see Planning for jobs and schedules 14 in

6 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM the "Plan for My Sites" article. Enable the User Profile Service Activity Feed Job The User Profile Service Activity Feed Job populates users' newsfeeds. After you configure My Sites, you should enable the User Profile Service activity feed job so that users will receive updates about activities in the My Newsfeed view of their My Sites. There are other timer jobs related to My Sites that you might want to review and change default settings for. For more information about jobs related to My Sites functionality, see Planning for jobs and schedules 14 in the "Plan for My Sites" article. To enable the User Profile Service Activity Feed Job To configure timer jobs, you must be a member of the Farm Administrators group on the computer running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. In SharePoint Central Administration, click Monitoring and then click Review job definitions. The Job Definitions page opens. In the View list, select Service. The Service list appears. If the Service list does not display User Profile Service, click Change Service. The Select Service page opens. Use the arrows in the upper-right corner to locate User Profile Service and then click it. The Job Definitions page updates with the User Profile Service jobs. Click the activity feed job for the User Profile service application that you created in the prerequisites section of this task. The job name is in the format User_Profile_Service_name - Activity Feed Job, where the User Profile Service name is the name that you specified for your User Profile service application. The Edit Timer Job page opens. In Recurring Schedule, select the interval that you want the job to run. Available intervals are Minutes, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. Selecting a shorter interval, such as Minutes or Hourly, ensures that activities appear on users' My Site newsfeeds more frequently. However, it can also place a heavy load on the system depending on how many activities are available. Selecting a longer interval, such as Daily, Weekly, or Monthly reduces the number of times the job runs and processes feeds. However, it also means that users receive less frequent updates to activities in their newsfeeds. Click Enable. 7. Next Steps Optionally, click Run Now to run the job immediately without waiting for the next scheduled interval. After you configure My Sites by using the procedures in this article, consider whether you require the following optional procedures: Configure trusted My Site host locations Configure links to Office client applications Add personalization site links on My Sites Start related services

7 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM Configure trusted My Site host locations Trusted My Site Host Locations is an optional feature that prevents a user from creating more than one My Site in an organization with multiple User Profile Service applications. For more information, see Add or delete a trusted My Site host location (SharePoint Server 2010) 15. Configure links to Office client applications A user's My Site is a convenient location for a user to save files that they work on in Office client applications, such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. After you configure an environment for My Sites, you can add a link to the Favorite Links section that users see when they save documents in the Save As dialog box in Office client applications. A user can then select his or her My Site and save files to the Shared Documents library, Personal Documents library, or other libraries that are available in the My Content section of his or her My Site. For more information, see Add or delete links to Office client applications (SharePoint Server 2010) 16. Add personalization site links on My Sites If your organization wants to provide important information to users, it can do so by adding personalization site links to a user's My Site. For more information, see Add or delete personalization site links on My Sites (SharePoint Server 2010) 17. Start related services If the related services for My Sites have not been started yet, start them so that My Sites functionality is available in your environment. For more information, see Manage services on the server (SharePoint Server 2010) 18. See Also Concepts Plan for My Sites (SharePoint Server 2010) 2 User Profile service application overview (SharePoint Server 2010) 19 Plan for profile synchronization (SharePoint Server 2010) 6 Configure profile synchronization (SharePoint Server 2010) 20 Change History Date Description Reason May 12, 2010 Initial publication Links Table 1 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff38264aspx 2 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262500.aspx 3 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4edf74cf-8808-4277-ba10-b1f925d7c440#relsvcapps

8 of 8 5/15/2011 9:14 PM 4 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc26187aspx 5 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/25d888b2-035a-40b4-a2b9-a496657a36e3#createapp 6 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff18292aspx 7 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4edf74cf-8808-4277-ba10-b1f925d7c440#mysitesarch 8 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4edf74cf-8808-4277-ba10-b1f925d7c440#storage 9 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc26184aspx 10 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4edf74cf-8808-4277-ba10-b1f925d7c440#searchapp 11 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc26205aspx 12 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/26c07867-0150-463d-b21a-a6d42aecf05a#section1 13 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=211793 14 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4edf74cf-8808-4277-ba10-b1f925d7c440#jobs 15 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee72106aspx 16 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc26310aspx 17 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc26297aspx 18 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee704549.aspx 19 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662538.aspx 20 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721049.aspx 2011 Microsoft. All rights reserved.