Part 3 – Create and Remove SharePoint Sites

Creating a SharePoint site is a powerful way to collaborate, organize content, and enhance productivity within your organization. In this blog, we’ll walk through the process of setting up a SharePoint site.

Blog Series

Create a Team/Communication SharePoint Site

  • Sign in to the SharePoint Online portal (https://yourdomain.sharepoint.com) using your Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) credentials.
  • Once signed in, you’ll typically land on the SharePoint landing page. If not, navigate to the “SharePoint” app from the app launcher.
  • Under Sites -> Active sites, click on “Create site” to initiate the site creation process.
  • Choose a site template
  • Click on ‘Browse more sites‘ to get access to more templates, enter the Site name, Description, Site address, and the Primary Administrator. Click Next
  • Select the language, and time zone and enter the storage limit. Click on ‘Create site
  • Once the site is created, it will populate under the Active Sites list.
  • After the site is created, you can redirect to the newly created site and start adding content, customizing the site layout, inviting members, and managing permissions. Permissions and storage can still be managed from the Admin Center.

SharePoint Site Creation via PowerShell

Site creation using New-SPOSite cmdlet

  • Team Site
New-SPOSite 
-Url https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSite1 
-Title "Team Site1" 
-Owner TrainingLab2402@grandvm02.onmicrosoft.com 
-StorageQuota 5000 
-Template STS#3
Team SharePoint Site
  • Communication Site
New-SPOSite 
-Url https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/CommunicationSite1 
-Title "Communication Site1" 
-Owner TrainingLab2402@grandvm02.onmicrosoft.com 
-StorageQuota 5000 
-Template SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0
Communication SharePoint Site

Site creations using New-PnPSite cmdlet

  • Team Site

The below command will generate a standalone Team site titled ‘Team Site2’ which will not be linked to a Microsoft 365 group. The admin initiating the site creation will assume ownership. Additionally, a designated custom site design will be applied to the site.

New-PnPSite -Type TeamSiteWithoutMicrosoft365Group -Title 'Team Site2' -Url https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSite2
  • Team Site -> linked with Microsoft 365 Group

New-PnPSite gives you the option to create Team site with Microsoft 365 group. The command below will establish a Team Site named ‘Teams group 1’, with the URL set to ‘https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/teams-group1’. The Microsoft 365 Group will be assign ‘Group1’ as its alias.

New-PnPSite -Type TeamSite -Title "Teams group 1" -Alias Group1 -SiteAlias teams-group1
  • Communication Site

This command will generate a fresh Communication Site titled ‘Communication Site2’.

New-PnPSite -Type CommunicationSite -Title "Communication Site2" -Url https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/CommunicationSite2

Add users to Sites

To manage Site Admins, Site Owners, and Site Members in SharePoint Online using PowerShell, you can use the following cmdlets:

  • Adding Site Admins:
Set-SPOUser -Site https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/Site1 -LoginName amy.anderson@grandvm02.onmicrosoft.com -IsSiteCollectionAdmin $true
  • Adding Site Owners:
Add-SPOUser -Group "Site1 Members" -LoginName Stephen.Salvatore@grandvm02.onmicrosoft.com -Site https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/Site1
  • Adding Site Members:
Add-SPOUser -Group "Site1 Owners" -LoginName Stephen.Salvatore@grandvm02.onmicrosoft.com -Site https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/Site1

Delete/Remove Sharepoint Sites

  • You can delete the Site straight from the SharePoint Site Settings by going to ‘Site Information‘.
  • Under Site information, choose ‘Delete site‘.

You will get the following prompt “You are about to delete the ‘Sample Team Site1’ site. This will delete all SharePoint content on the site. Please backup any files or other content before proceeding. Do you want to continue?

Check the box “Yes, delete this site and its associated content.” and click on Delete.

  • You can also delete the Site from the SharePoint Admin Center.
  • Deleted SharePoint sites will be retained for 93 days until permanently deleted. You can choose to restore or permanently delete the site from the ‘Deleted site‘ page if needed within this period.

To delete using PowerShell

Use the Remove-SPOSite cmdlet to remove a SharePoint Site(you can set the parameter confirm to $false to suppress the confirmation prompt when removing the specified SharePoint site. -> confirm:$false)

Remove-SPOSite -Identity https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSite1
  • The site that has been deleted will appear in the Deleted Sites list, showing the ‘Days remaining’ until it gets permanently deleted automatically.
Get-SPODeletedSite

However, it’s worth noting that during this period, we still have the option to restore the site if needed.

Restore-SPODeletedSite https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSite1

Use the Remove-SPODeletedSite cmdlet to remove the site from the deleted list.

Remove-SPODeletedSite -Identity https://grandvm02.sharepoint.com/sites/TeamSite1

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By C A Thomas

Chinchu A. Thomas is an Infrastructure Analyst specializing in Microsoft Azure, the Microsoft 365 suite, AWS, and Windows infrastructure management products.