Plan to share terminology and content types (SharePoint Server 2010)

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

A managed metadata service publishes a term store and, optionally, content types; a managed metadata connection consumes them. To share term sets among site collections, you create a managed metadata service, and then create connections to the service from each Web application that contains a site collection. To share content types among site collections, you make one content type gallery the “hub” of a managed metadata service, create connections to the service from each Web application that contains a site collection, and specify that site collections should use the content types in the service.

This article contains procedures for identifying the managed metadata services and connections that your solution requires. The planning process that is described in this article is only a recommendation. There are other ways to structure your managed metadata services and connections.

Before reading this article, you should understand the concepts described in Managed metadata service application overview (SharePoint Server 2010) and Services architecture planning (SharePoint Server 2010).

In this article:

• About planning managed metadata services and connections

• Identify managed metadata services

• Identify managed metadata connections

• Determine service account permissions

• Managed metadata services planning worksheet

About planning managed metadata services and connections

Before you plan your managed metadata services and connections, you should already have identified the site collections in your solution and determined which site collections will be contained in which Web applications.

The planning process that is described in this article starts with the simplest configuration – a single managed metadata service – and then directs you to add more services in certain situations. Then you determine the connections to each managed metadata service, and determine the connection parameters. If you have to have more than one managed metadata service, keep track of the services that you identify, as well as a description of what each service’s term store will be used for and which site collection the service’s content type hub, if any, will come from. Also keep track of the connections that you identify, and the values of their connection parameters. You can record this information in the worksheets that are referenced at the end of this article.

Your organization’s governance policies can affect how you design your managed metadata services and connections. For example, if there is a formal process for managing terms and term sets, this will affect how you set connection parameters. If every document that is created must have a certain set of attributes, you will probably want to have a content type hub in at least one service. Familiarize yourself with your organization’s governance plan before you determine the managed metadata services and connections. For more information about how to create a governance plan, see Governance overview (SharePoint Server 2010).

Identify managed metadata services

If you intend to use terms and term sets, or if you intend to share content types across more than one site collection, your solution must use a managed metadata service. Assume for now that you will store all term sets and all enterprise keywords in a single term store. The first managed metadata service, called the “primary” managed metadata service in this article, contains this term store. If your solution includes shared content types, assume that a single content type gallery will contain all shared content types. This content type gallery, if it exists, is the hub of the primary managed metadata service. In many cases, the primary managed metadata service is the only managed metadata service that you will need.

A local term set is a term set that is created within the context of a site collection. For example, if you add a column to a list in a document library, and create a new term set to bind the column to, the new term set is local to the site collection that contains the document library.

A global term set is a term set that is created outside the context of a site collection. For example, the term store administrator could create a term set group called "Human Resources" and designate a person to manage the term set group. The group manager would create term sets that relate to Human Resources, such as job titles and pay grades in the Human Resources term set group. The keyword set, which contains enterprise keywords, is a global term set.

Users can see only global term sets and term sets that are local to the user’s site collection.

A content type hub is associated with the content type gallery of a site collection. If you have to share content types from the content type galleries of multiple site collections, add a managed metadata service for each required content type hub.

Identify managed metadata connections

Add a connection from the primary managed metadata service to every Web application that contains a site collection. Use the following guidelines to determine the values of the connection’s parameters.

• Default keyword location:

  • NO, if users of sites in the Web application might create an enterprise keyword that should be kept private.

  • Otherwise, YES.

• Default column-specific term set location:

  • NO if administrators of sites in the Web application should be unable to make new term sets.

  • Otherwise, YES.

• Use content types: YES, assuming that the primary managed metadata service has a content type hub and you have no reason not to use the content types.

• Push down content types: YES, assuming that the primary managed metadata service has a content type hub, and you have no reason not to push them down.

Any remaining managed metadata services will be used only for their content type hubs. Create a connection from every remaining managed metadata service to each Web application that contains a site collection that uses the content types. Use the following guidelines to determine the values of the connection’s parameters:

• Default keyword location: NO.

• Default column-specific term set location: NO.

• Use content types: YES.

• Push down content types: YES, assuming you have no reason not to push them down.

For each Web application, review the values of the parameters of all connections to a managed metadata service. Check for the following conditions:

• If no connection is specified as the default keyword location, users of sites in the Web application will be unable to create new enterprise keywords. If this is not what you want, set the value of the default keyword location to YES in the connection to the managed metadata service whose term store should contain the new enterprise keywords.

• If no connection is specified as the default column-specific term set location, administrators of sites in the Web application will be unable to create new term sets when they create a managed metadata column. If this is not what you want, set the value of the default column-specific term set location to YES in the connection to the managed metadata service whose term store should contain the new term sets.

• Ensure that there is a maximum of one default keyword location per Web application. The managed metadata service does not support more than one default keyword location per Web application.

• Ensure that there is a maximum of one default column-specific term set location per Web application. The managed metadata service does not support more than one default column-specific term set location per Web application.

Determine service account permissions

When you create a connection from a Web application to a service, the connection runs with the credentials of Web application's application pool account. Users of sites in the Web application can perform different actions depending on the permission that the service grants to the application pool account. There are three levels of permission: read, restricted, and full.

The following table indicates which actions actions are enabled, depending on the permissions that the service grants.

By default, all application pool accounts that are local to the farm on which the service runs have full access to the term store.

Use the following procedure to determine the permissions that each service will grant to each connection. Complete the planning steps once for each managed metadata service.

1. Determine the level of permission you want to grant automatically to all connections from within the local farm. Record the permission level in the Local Farm permissions column of the services page of the worksheet.

2. If any connections from within the local farm must have greater permissions than you granted to the Local Farm group, record the permission level in the permissions column of the connections tab of the worksheet.

3. If Web applications on remote farms will connect to the service, record the permission level of each remote connection in the permissions column of the connections tab of the worksheet.

Managed metadata services planning worksheet

Download an Excel version of the Managed metadata services planning worksheet (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=164578).

See Also

Concepts

Managed metadata service application overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
Governance overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
Managed metadata overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
Services architecture planning (SharePoint Server 2010)
Create, update, publish, or delete a managed metadata service application (SharePoint Server 2010)
Create, update, or delete a managed metadata service connection (SharePoint Server 2010)
Grant permission to access the managed metadata service (SharePoint Server 2010)