What is the best way to copy an existing SharePoint MOSS site and then recreate a copy of it on the same server?
I want to ideally include web parts but not actual content like documents etc.
I've looked at using the SPDeploymentWizard and saving the site as a template but the SPDeploymentWizard takes all the content and saving it as a template I get an error that the site is too big to save.
Any suggestions appreciated
Best Answer
Webpages with weparts or not are considered content in SharePoint. So to move the site you will have to create a new moss site with an associate content database.
You will then be able to backup your original site and restore it over the new one.
Then you will have to delete the content you did not want to have in the new site.
To avoid this problem in the future, create a SharePoint Solution containing site template using STSDev2008. This will take time, but it will allow you to create a site with all the required content pages etc ready to go and will reduce the time to create these sites.