Setting Up Content Deployment in SharePoint

Step 1. Create a Source Site Collection

First, you will need a site to serve as the source for the content deployment job. To create the source site collection.

On the SharePoint Central Administration website, in the Application Management section, click Create Site Collections.

Step 2. Create a New Web Application

You cannot copy your source site into a destination site that resides in the same content database as the source. You must either create a new web application to hold the destination site or create a new content database in the current web application. To create a new web application:

1. On the Central Administration Web site, in the Application Management section, click Manage web applications.
2. On the Web Applications Management page, click New.
3. In the IIS Web Site section, in the Port box, type 8888.
4. In the Application Pool section, in the Application Pool name box, type Destination Site.
5. Accept all other default values, and click OK. The Application Created window appears.
6. In the Application Created window, click OK.

Step 3. Create a Destination Site Collection

Create an empty site collection to hold the deployed site. Do not specify a template for the site collection; using a template will cause the content deployment job to fail. You can create the destination site collection by using the Select template later option when creating an empty site in the Central Administration Web site, or by using a PowerShell cmdlet to create an empty site without specifying a template.

Step 4. Enable Incoming Content Deployment Jobs

By default, all incoming deployment jobs are rejected by the destination server. Before creating a content deployment path, you must enable incoming jobs on the destination server. In this walkthrough, the source and destination servers are the same.

1. On the Central Administration website, click General Application Settings.
2. On the General Application Settings page, in the Content Deployment section, click Configure Content Deployment.
3. On the Content Deployment Settings page, select Accept incoming content deployment jobs.
4. Click OK.

Step 5. Create a Content Deployment Path

Create the content deployment path to select the source and destination site collections:

1. On the Central Administration website, in the General Application Settings section, click Configure content deployment paths and jobs.
2. On the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, click New Path.
3. On the Create Content Deployment Path page, enter the URLs for the source and destination site collections, and also the authentication information. Note: You might also need to provide the Central Administration Web Application URL for the destination server. In this case, since we are copying the content to the same server but a different web application, provide the central administration path that we use locally on our server.

Step 6. Create a Content Deployment Job

Now that you have created a content deployment path, you can create a job to perform the actual deployment. The job will contain the schedule and other settings.

1. On the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, click New Job.
2. On the Create Content Deployment Job page, specify the Name and Description of the deployment job, and the Path.

Step 7. Deploy the Source Site

Deploy the source site to ensure the source and destination sites are in sync.

1. On the Manage Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, on the Deployment Job menu, click Run Now.
2. Refresh the page until the job Status is Completed.
3. Browse to http://<servername>/sites/target, where <servername> is the name of your server, to view the destination site. Notice that the title of the site is the same as the source site, and even though you initially applied the empty site template, there is no content on the site.

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