Essential SharePoint

Enabling Self-Service Site Creation

One of the advantages of hosting SharePoint yourself is that you can let members of your network create and maintain their own SharePoint sites without much intervention. To enable self-service site creation:

1. On the server, choose Start → Administrative Tools → SharePoint Central Administration to display the Central Administration site.

2. Select Configure virtual server settings, and then select the server to configure.

3. Select Configure Self-Service Site Creation.

4. Turn Self-Service Site Creation on and click OK. SharePoint activates site creation and adds an announcement to the site featuring a link to the site creation page (scsignup.aspx).

SharePoint grants site creation rights to the Reader members group. You may want to remove that permission so that only Contributor or higher-level members can create new sites. To do that:

1. Display the SharePoint top-level site and choose Site Settings → Go to Site Administration → Manage site groups.

2. Click on the Reader site group and then click Edit Site Group Permissions. SharePoint displays all the permissions for the Reader group.

3. Select the Use Self-Service Site Creation permission to clear the check box next to it and choose Submit to make the change.

   Tip

   If you allow anonymous access over the Internet, those users can't create sites since members must sign on to use scsignup.aspx. Only authenticated users can create sites.

The site creation page (scsignup.aspx) allows members to create new sites in the ...