When I try to assign a site directory siteto the Master Site Directory in SharePoint 2007 that is not located on the default IIS website I recieve the error This not a valid site directory. Specify a URL to a site that is using the site directory template. I've tried creating separate site collections using the site directory template but still revcieve the error. I can assign any site directory site location on the default IIS website without a problem.Does anyone have an idea about what the issue might be? thanks, Brett

The Site Directory is scoped per site collection. Hence when you go to set the Master site directory path, you set it within the Site Collection Administration section.

If it all happens at the site collection level what data is added to the master site collection page in the central admin? I do not see a field at the site collection level to set it as the master site driectory, just the site directory for that site colleciton. Thanks. Brett

The master site directory is not supposed to happen at the site collection level as it is supposed to maintain a list of site directories. Each site collection can have it's own site site directory though. I have not been able to find any documentation on how the Master Site directory is supposed to work, it is not documented on MSDN or the Sharepoint admin texts. The error is resolved by setting up an alternate access mapping to the site directory using a NetBIOS name and using that. I'm not sure what is supposed to happen after that though.... I have a post on my blog with more info: http://lumbgaps.blogspot.com/2007/11/master-site-directory-in-sharepoint.htmland http://lumbgaps.blogspot.com/2007/10/mysterious-sharepoint-2007-master-site.html

The master site directory is intended to store the listing of site collections. So if your environment is set up so that users are able to create new site collections then the master site directory could be useful as that site collection will be listed in the master site directory. However, any sub-sites that are created will not be listed unless they are manually added. For sub-sites you would create another site directory within the site collection and store them there. For an environment with very few site collections the master site directory is fairly limited in its use unless you want users to manually enter their site into the list.

I conceed that changing the Master Site Dirctory from any default configured at intall time is probably overkill for a single server MOSS 2007 farm. However there does appear to be bug when I set a valid master directory site: "This not a valid site directory. Specify a URL to a site that is using the site directory template"The URL is valid! I have the <proxy autoDetect="false" /> in the Web.Config of the central administrator site and performed iisreset. But still the problem exitsSo I just wondered if it would be worth verifying the URL check in the config database to see if there is any descrepancy and is there any other work around out there.

Check the authentication mode on the website of the site directory. Worked for me. http://www.2at.nl/blog/archive/2010/05/18/site-directory-settings-giving-wrong-error-.aspx