Delete site collections (Windows SharePoint Services)

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Topic Last Modified: 2008-05-05

Delete site collections

An administrator can use Batch Site Manager to delete one or more site collections. Before you attempt to delete a site collection, you want to make sure that a successful backup of the site collection has been created using a preferred backup method of your choice. However, you do have the option to back up a site collection when the delete operation is used within Batch Site Manager.

For additional information about performing a backup using built-in tools, see Back up and restore the entire farm (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology).

Task requirements

The following are required to perform the procedures for this task:

• You must be a member of the Farm Administrators group within the SharePoint server farm.

For additional information about security roles, see Plan for security roles (Windows SharePoint Services).

To delete site collections

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web page in the Batch Site Manager section, click Move, Lock, and Delete Site Collections.

2. (Optional) On the Move, Lock, and Delete Multiple Site Collections page, a statistics aggregation timer job should be started and completed in order to make sure the status of a site collection is the latest, depending on how recently such a job was run.

3. On the Move, Lock, and Delete Multiple Site Collections page, select one or more check boxes to indicate which site collection or collections you want to delete.

4. Click Delete.

5. On the Delete Multiple Site Collections page, in the Name and Description section, type a name and description (optional) for the timer job that will perform the delete operation.

6. In the Backup section, click Yes if you want to back up the site collection before you perform a delete operation or click No if you do not want to perform a backup operation. The default value is No. If you choose Yes, you must specify a backup location. The location can reside on the local computer or on a network drive.

   Note

   Unlike the Backup Stsadm operation, which creates a backup file with the .bak extension, this Batch Site Manager operation creates a backup file that uses the .cms file extension.

7. In the Schedule Job section, click Now to run the timer job immediately, or Specified Time (in the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM) to indicate a time in the future. By default, the timer job runs immediately.

8. In the Success/Failure Notification section, click the Send e-mail when site collection job succeeds or Send e-mail if site collection job fails check boxes if you want to receive notifications. To receive notifications, provide an e-mail address in the E-mail Address box.

   Note

   You can select both check boxes.

9. Click OK.