Site collection and inherit master page in Sharepoint 2013

Question

I've created a web application at : test.mycompany.net Then I created a root site collection at : test.mycompany.net (publishing portal template) and 3 site collections :

1. test.mycompany.net/dev (develop template)
2. test.mycompany.net/my (mysite template)
3. test.mycompany.net/team (team site template)

My questions are:

• Is the test.mycompany.net site collection parent for the three other sites?

I've created a custom master page and using it for test.mycompany.net but the three other sites aster page did't inherit it.

• Why didn't they get my custom master page?
• What should I do to get this functionality?

Answer 1

A Site Collection cannot have a Parent Site Collection, A Site Collection can only have child Sub-Sites.

So to answer your questions:

1. 'test.mycompany.net' is not a parent to the other site collections.
2. It didn't inherit because there is no parent-child relationship. Only subsites would be able to inherit the masterpage.
3. In order to 'share' a masterpage, you would need to add the masterpage to a feature that you could activate on all 4 site collections. Then any changes made to the masterpage would be applied to all 4 sites.

These diagrams may help explain the SharePoint Hierachy: http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC413942.jpg

Here's a walkthrough of adding your masterpage as a feature:
http://amjadk.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-create-a-master-page-in-sharepoint-2013-using-visual-studio/