SharePoint Tips: New Site Collection & New Content Database

Target Audience: Site Administrators

It is a good practice to employ a dedicated content database for each site collection. When you create a new site collection in SharePoint 2010, there is however no easy way to indicate which content database to use. There are at least two approaches: Central Administration and the almighty Powershell. Let’s focus on the Central Administration route in this article. Although this method involves more steps and mouse clicks, it is fairly easy to perform, even while zipping your fresh mocha.

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Under Application Management , click on Manage content databases.
3. Click on each existing content database. Change the Database status to Offline.
4. Click Add a content database and complete the wizard. 
5. Go back to Central Administration.
6. Under Application Management , click on Create site collections.
7. Complete the wizard.
8. If all goes right, this new site collection now uses the content database you just created few seconds ago.
9. Verify by checking Application Management  > View all site collections.
10. Once satisfied, do make sure to switch all the content databases back to Ready status.

For additional information on SharePoint 2010 Site Planning, please visit Microsoft TechNet.

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