🎯 SharePoint Course · Module 1 of 7
SharePoint Admin Center Overview & Navigation
MS-102 Exam Alignment
MS-102
Manage SharePoint Online: Navigate the SharePoint admin center, understand site types, manage admin roles and permissions, and connect to SharePoint Online via PowerShell for administrative tasks.
- Know the SharePoint admin center URL: admin.microsoft.com → SharePoint admin center or directly via your-tenant-name-admin.sharepoint.com
- Know the three primary site types: Team site (M365 Group-connected, collaboration), Communication site (broadcast/intranet), Hub site (connection point for related sites)
- Know that the SharePoint Administrator role manages site collections, sharing settings, and tenant-wide SharePoint configuration — but cannot access site content unless explicitly granted permissions
- Know the difference between the SharePoint admin center and the individual site Settings — the admin center manages tenant-wide and site collection-level settings; individual site settings are managed within each site
Exam Tip: Every Microsoft Teams team automatically creates a SharePoint Team site as its backing storage — the team’s files tab is the document library of this SharePoint site. This means SharePoint Online is always present in a Teams deployment, even if users never open SharePoint directly. MS-102 tests this relationship frequently.
Microsoft SharePoint Online is the cloud-based collaboration and document management platform included in Microsoft 365. It provides team sites, communication sites, document libraries, lists, pages, and web parts — all managed from a central SharePoint admin center. As an admin, you control who can create sites, how content is shared, what features are available, and how the platform is governed across the organisation.
🖥️ The SharePoint Admin Center
The SharePoint admin center is accessible via Microsoft 365 admin center → Admin centers → SharePoint, or directly at your tenant admin URL.
Microsoft 365 admin center › Admin centers › SharePoint
🏠 Home
🌐 Sites
Active sites
Deleted sites
Site creation
👤 User profiles
Manage user profiles
Manage audiences
📄 Content services
Term store
Content type gallery
Syntex
📋 Policies
Sharing
Access control
Data lifecycle
⚙️ Settings
SharePoint
OneDrive
🌐
312
Active sites
📦
4.7 TB
Storage used
🔗
8
Hub sites
Active sites — recent
Site nameTypeStorage usedSharing
Contoso IntranetCommunication14.2 GBOrg only
Sales TeamTeam site8.7 GBNew guests
HR HubHub site2.1 GBOrg only
Key Navigation Sections
| Section | What You Manage Here |
|---|---|
| Sites → Active sites | View and manage all site collections — URL, template, owner, storage used, sharing level, hub association. Create new sites, manage site storage, delete sites |
| Sites → Deleted sites | Sites in the recycle bin (held for 93 days). Restore deleted sites or permanently delete them |
| Sites → Site creation | Control who can create Microsoft 365 Groups (and therefore new Team sites) — administrators only, or all users |
| User profiles | Manage user profile properties, audiences, and My Site (OneDrive) settings |
| Content services → Term store | Manage the enterprise managed metadata taxonomy — term groups, term sets, and terms used for document tagging and navigation |
| Content services → Content type gallery | The tenant-level content type hub — publish content types to all site collections |
| Policies → Sharing | Tenant-wide and per-site sharing settings — the most important security controls for external access |
| Policies → Access control | Unmanaged device access controls, IP-based location restrictions, and session-based app access control |
| Settings | SharePoint and OneDrive tenant settings — default sharing link type, idle session sign-out, file and sync settings, version history limits |
🏗️ SharePoint Site Types
| Site Type | Purpose | Microsoft 365 Group? | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team site | Collaborative workspaces where a team stores and works on documents, lists, and pages together | ✅ Yes — connected to an M365 Group (includes shared mailbox, calendar, Teams channel) | Project teams, department intranets, any collaboration scenario requiring a shared workspace |
| Communication site | Broadcast site for publishing information to a wide audience — news, announcements, policies | ❌ No — not connected to an M365 Group. Single owner manages content | Company intranet homepage, HR policy site, IT news site, corporate announcements |
| Hub site | A connection point that groups related sites together — provides shared navigation, search, and branding across associated sites | Either — a Team site or Communication site can be registered as a hub | Intranet architecture — e.g., an “HR Hub” with associated HR Team site, Benefits site, Recruitment site all sharing hub navigation |
🔑 SharePoint Admin Roles
| Role | What They Can Do | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SharePoint Administrator | Full access to the SharePoint admin center. Create/delete/manage site collections, configure tenant-wide sharing and storage settings, manage user profiles and the term store | Does NOT have automatic access to view site content — must be explicitly added as a site collection admin to access a specific site’s files |
| Global Administrator | Has all SharePoint Administrator capabilities plus full tenant management | Best practice: use SharePoint Administrator role for day-to-day SharePoint admin — not Global Admin |
| Site Collection Administrator | Full control over a specific site collection — all settings, permissions, and content | Managed per-site. Set in the SharePoint admin center (Sites → Active sites → [site] → Membership → Site admins) |
💡 SharePoint Administrator vs Site Owner
The SharePoint Administrator manages the platform (creating sites, setting storage limits, configuring tenant sharing settings). They do not automatically have access to the content inside sites. A Site Owner manages a specific site — its pages, permissions, lists, and libraries. These are two different tiers of management that work together: the administrator builds and governs the environment; site owners manage their individual spaces within it.
PowerShell — SharePoint Online (PnP PowerShell)
# Install PnP PowerShell (recommended — more comprehensive) Install-Module PnP.PowerShell # Connect to the SharePoint Online admin center Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://your-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com -Interactive # Or use the built-in SPO Management Shell Install-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell Connect-SPOService -Url https://your-tenant-admin.sharepoint.com # List all site collections with key properties Get-SPOSite | Select-Object Url,Title,Template,StorageUsageCurrent,SharingCapability | Sort-Object Url # Find large sites (over 10 GB) Get-SPOSite | Where-Object {$_.StorageUsageCurrent -gt 10240} | Select-Object Title,Url,StorageUsageCurrent
💡 Best Practices
- Assign the SharePoint Administrator role (not Global Administrator) to SharePoint admins — following least-privilege minimises the blast radius of a compromised admin account
- Use Communication sites for top-down broadcast content (intranet, HR policies, IT news) and Team sites for collaborative workspaces — mixing these creates confusing sites that don’t serve either purpose well
- Register key sites as Hub sites from the start of your SharePoint deployment — retrofitting hub site architecture after hundreds of sites are created is significantly more difficult than planning it upfront
- Understand that every Microsoft Teams team creates a backing SharePoint Team site — factor this into storage planning and governance, as uncontrolled Teams proliferation leads to hundreds of SharePoint sites
🎓 Interview Q&A
Q: A SharePoint Administrator reports they cannot see files in a particular team’s SharePoint site. Is this expected?
Yes, this is expected and correct behaviour. The SharePoint Administrator role grants access to the SharePoint admin center to manage site collections, configure settings, and manage storage — but it does not grant automatic access to the content inside individual sites. To access files in a specific site, the SharePoint Administrator must either add themselves as a site collection administrator for that site (via the SharePoint admin center → Active sites → [site] → Membership → Site admins) or be explicitly granted permissions by the site owner. This separation is intentional — it prevents administrators from having uninvited access to sensitive content across the organisation.
🎯 MS-102 Mock Test
Module 1 — SharePoint Admin Center Overview
5 questions · Scenario-based · Pass mark: 70%
Q1 of 5
A company creates a new Microsoft Teams team called “Project Alpha.” What SharePoint resource is automatically created alongside it?
AA SharePoint Communication site named “Project Alpha”
BA SharePoint Team site connected to the Microsoft 365 Group created for the Teams team
CA SharePoint Hub site registered for the team’s department
DNo SharePoint site — Teams uses its own storage system separate from SharePoint
✅ B. Every Microsoft Teams team is backed by a Microsoft 365 Group. When a team is created, an M365 Group is created, which automatically provisions a SharePoint Team site (for file storage — the Files tab in Teams), a shared Exchange mailbox and calendar, a OneNote notebook, and a Planner plan. The Teams “Files” tab is the document library of the backing SharePoint site.
Q2 of 5
Which site type is best suited for a company’s intranet homepage — a broadcast site that publishes company news, HR announcements, and IT updates to all employees?
ATeam site — it provides the richest collaboration features
BHub site — hub sites are designed for top-level content
CClassic Publishing site — the traditional intranet site type
DCommunication site — designed for broadcasting information from a few publishers to a large audience
✅ D. A Communication site is designed for top-down broadcasting — a small number of content editors publish news and content that a large audience reads. It’s not connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, has a clean public-facing layout, and supports modern web parts for news, events, and hero content. This makes it ideal for intranet homepages, HR portals, IT news sites, and company announcement pages.
Q3 of 5
A SharePoint Administrator needs to restore a site collection that was deleted 15 days ago. Where do they look?
AMicrosoft 365 admin center → Microsoft 365 Groups → Deleted groups
BSharePoint admin center → Sites → Active sites (it never fully deletes within 30 days)
CSharePoint admin center → Sites → Deleted sites — sites are retained for 93 days
DContact Microsoft Support — deleted site collections cannot be recovered after 7 days
✅ C. Deleted site collections are retained in the SharePoint admin center → Sites → Deleted sites for 93 days before being permanently purged. The administrator can restore a deleted site from here within that window. At 15 days post-deletion, the site is fully restorable.
Q4 of 5
Where in the SharePoint admin center would an admin configure the tenant-wide policy for external sharing (e.g., whether Anyone links are allowed)?
APolicies → Sharing — the Sharing page controls tenant-wide and per-site external sharing levels
BSettings → SharePoint — general SharePoint settings
CSites → Active sites → (select site) → Sharing tab
DMicrosoft 365 admin center → Org settings → Security & privacy
✅ A. Policies → Sharing in the SharePoint admin center is where you configure the tenant-wide external sharing level — the master dial that controls the maximum sharing allowed across the entire tenant. Individual sites can be restricted below this level but cannot exceed it. This is where you set the four sharing tiers: Anyone (most permissive), New and existing guests, Existing guests only, and Only people in your org (most restrictive).
Q5 of 5
An organisation wants to prevent all non-IT staff from creating new Microsoft 365 Groups (and therefore new Teams teams and Team sites). Where is this configured?
ASharePoint admin center → Settings → Site creation: Administrators only
BMicrosoft Teams admin center → Teams policies → Restrict team creation
CMicrosoft 365 admin center → Settings → Org settings → Microsoft 365 Groups
DMicrosoft Entra ID → Groups → General settings → Users can create Microsoft 365 Groups: No, then specify a security group of allowed creators
✅ D. Microsoft 365 Group creation is controlled in Entra ID → Groups → General settings. Setting “Users can create Microsoft 365 Groups” to No and specifying a security group of allowed creators (e.g., “IT-Admins”) restricts who can create Groups — and therefore who can create new Teams teams, Team sites, Planner plans, and other Group-backed services.
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Locked — This module unlocks automatically.