Microsoft Sharepoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit eBook

Chapter 17: Configuring SharePoint Portal Server 2003 471
Virtual Server List page. Selecting a virtual server on that page brings you to the Virtual
Server Settings page depicted in Figure 17-8, which will allow you to configure
that server. We now will examine the various configuration options the Virtual
Server Settings page provides. Keep in mind that any settings that contradict similar
settings that you have defined at the portal site level will be superseded by the
virtual server’s settings.
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Figure 17-8 The Windows SharePoint Services Virtual Server Settings page
Configure Self-Service Site Creation
You might want to give your user community the ability to create new sites for themselves
on the fly by enabling Self-Service Site Creation. If this feature is enabled, any
user can create new top-level websites without an approval process.
Careful consideration must be given before turning this feature on, as you are
potentially relinquishing control over the propagation of sites and site content in
your organization. If you turn it on and don’t check its usage, you might find yourself
with a portal site filled with unused sites created at the user community’s whim.
To address this issue, a “dead-web cleanup” feature is provided that is described in
the next section.
Configure Site Collection Use Confirmation and Deletion
To help mitigate the loss of disk and database space as a result of unused site collections,
this option allows the administrator to set time limits that define how long
to wait to delete unused site collections. There are also parameters that allow the
administrator to define how many times to e-mail the owners of these unused sites
to warn them of the deletion. If activity on the site is detected or if the owner of the
site responds to the e-mailed warning, the site will not be deleted. Keep in mind that