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When you extend (extend: To apply Windows SharePoint Services to a virtual server.) a virtual server (virtual server: A virtual computer that resides on an HTTP server but appears to the user as a separate HTTP server. Several virtual servers can reside on one computer. Each virtual server can have its own domain name and IP address.), create a toplevel Web site (top-level Web site: The default, top-level site provided by a Web server or virtual server. To gain access to the top-level Web site, you supply the URL of the server without specifying a page name or subsite.), or configure Self-Service Site Creation, you may also need to define managed paths. Managed paths allow you to perform two important tasks:

• Indicate which pieces of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) (Uniform Resource Locator (URL): An address that specifies a protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) and a location of an object, document, World Wide Web page, or other destination on the Internet or an intranet. Example: http://www.microsoft.com/.) namespace are controlled by Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

  Many organizations installing Windows SharePoint Services already have a Web server (Web server: A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with http://.) or server farm (server farm: A centralized grouping of network servers maintained by an enterprise or, often, an Internet service provider (ISP). A server farm provides a network with load balancing, scalability, and fault tolerance.) in use, and must be able to identify areas of the existing URL namespace that should not be managed by Windows SharePoint Services. For example, if you have a Web application on your Web server already, and you install Windows SharePoint Services, you need a way to tell Windows SharePoint Services not to attempt to control content in or settings for that path.

• Specify paths to use for Self-Service Site Creation.

  You can restrict Self-Service Site Creation users to specific paths when they create sites. By default, the path /sites is created and added as a path for Self-Service Site Creation users when you enable Self-Service Site Creation. You can create other paths for Self-Service Site Creation users, or remove the /sites path when you manage paths.

There are two categories of paths you can manage: included and excluded paths. An included path indicates that Windows SharePoint Services manages that path. An excluded path indicates that the path is managed by a different application, and that Windows SharePoint Services should leave it alone. Included paths can be further broken down into the following two types:

• Explicit inclusions —Includes only the specific path you set. Use explicit inclusions, for example, if you want Windows SharePoint Services to manage a specific path, such as /portal, but not any possible sites below it, such as /portal/webapp.
• Wildcard inclusions —Includes any sites below the path you set, so you don't have to add them individually. This is the type of inclusion to use for Self-Service Site Creation, when you want users to be able to create top-level Web sites underneath a specific path, such as /sites.

Note  Web server performance declines linearly with the number of inclusions and exclusions. You can minimize the performance impact by using wildcard inclusions rather than many explicit inclusions, and by putting as many excluded applications under the same excluded path as possible.

The following table lists example URLs and explains the types of paths.

Included and excluded paths are used only for directories, not pages in a Web site, and they are recursive (for example, if you exclude /mango, Windows SharePoint Services will ignore any URL beginning with /mango/ or equal to /mango). Exclusions take precedence over inclusions, so if you accidentally set a particular path to be both included and excluded, the path will be excluded. Inclusions are evaluated by length; longer URLs are checked before shorter URLs, so an inclusion for http://server1/sites/teams will be evaluated before an inclusion for http://server1/teams.

You can manage paths by using either HTML Administration pages or the command line.

Managing Paths by Using HTML Administration Pages

To include or exclude a new path, use the Define Managed Paths page for the virtual server that contains the path.

Add a new path

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Central Administration.
2. On the Central Administration page, under Virtual Server Configuration, click Configure virtual server settings.
3. On the Virtual Server List page, select the virtual server you want to configure.
4. On the Virtual Server Settings page, under Virtual Server Management, click Define managed paths.
5. In the Add a New Path section, in the Path box, type the path to add.
6. Select Excluded path or Included path. If you select Included path, select a type (wildcard or explicit) in the Type box.
7. Click OK.

If you change how you use the URL namespace, and no longer need a path to be included or excluded, you can remove the path.

Remove a path

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint Central Administration.
2. On the Central Administration page, under Virtual Server Configuration, click Configure virtual server settings.
3. On the Virtual Server List page, select the virtual server you want to configure.
4. On the Virtual Server Settings page, under Virtual Server Management, click Define Managed Paths.
5. Under Included Paths or Excluded Paths, select the check box next to the path you want to remove, and then click Remove selected paths.

Managing Paths from the Command Line

You can use the addpath and deletepath operations to manage paths on the command line. Both operations take the -url and -type parameters. The -type parameter has three values: exclusion, explicitinclusion, and wildcardinclusion. For example, to add a new wildcard inclusion to manage all sites at the top level of http://server1, you would use syntax like the following:

stsadm -o addpath -url http://server1/ -type wildcardinclusion

You can also remove an included or excluded path by using the command line. For example, to remove an exclusion for the site at http://server1/hrweb/webapp, you would use syntax like the following:

stsadm -o deletepath -url http://server1/hrweb/webapp

Related Topics

For more information about how managed paths affect extending a virtual server, creating sites, or allowing users to create sites by using Self-Service Site Creation, see Extending Virtual Servers, "Creating Sites and Subsites," and "Configuring Self-Service Site Creation" in the Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide.