Creating a site in the root of the web application with same name as managed path

Question

I am quite new to MOSS. I have created a site collection at the root of the web application and created new site named as "sites". So the URL for the newly created site reads as http://servername:3456/sites/default.aspx and this URL is accessible.

Now I have created a new site collection at the managed path "sites/" and "site1". So the URL for the newly created site collection reads as http://servername:3456/sites/site1/default.aspx and this URL is accessible too.

Now when I come back to the previous URL http://servername:3456/sites/default.aspx, it is showing as 404 Page not found. Whereas the site is available in sites library of the root site collection. Could anybody explain me the reason behind this?

Answer 1

You don't say whether the second site collection and managed path are created in a new web application or in the existing one - I am assuming it is the same one.

When an incoming request is received, the logic works by examining the URL to see if it matches one of the managed paths. This will take precedence over any site you have defined beneath the root site.

I think the takeaway here is that giving a sub-site the same name as a managed path is a bad idea - particularly the default name of "sites".

Answer 2

Simply put...you wiped out the site collection called sites when you created a site collection called sites/site1. I don't know if you created a site collection called sites because you felt you needed to, but it is not necessary or advisable to do so.

Frankly I'm surprised SharePoint allowed you to do it...thinking this is one for the product team.