Problem Summary

After enabling the new SharePoint Server Subscription Edition feature to find users from the UPA directly with the SPTrustedBackedByUPAClaimProvider, See: Configure People Picker to find users from the UPA, you may be unable to create a root site in a new Web Application.

When creating the Root Site Collection, it may fail with “File Not Found”

Here is an example of the failure using PowerShell:

New-SPSite : The site http://spwfe:88/ could not be found in the Web application SPWebApplication Name=Web App 88.
At line:1 char:1
+ New-SPSite -Url $site -OwnerAlias $siteowner -Template $SiteTemplate …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share…SPCmdletNewSite:SPCmdletNewSite) [New-SPSite], FileNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletNewSite

Here is an example of the error using Central Admin:

From ULS logs you will see the following error.

Couldn’t get settings from site settings manager. Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The site http://spwfe:88/ could not be found in the Web application SPWebApplication Name=Web App 88.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.LookupSiteInfo(SPFarm farm, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, Uri& requestUri, Boolean& lookupRequiredContext, Guid& applicationId, Guid& contentDatabaseId, Guid& siteId, Guid& siteSubscriptionId, SPUrlZone& zone, String& serverRelativeUrl, String& siteRedirectUrl, Boolean& hostHeaderIsSiteName, Boolean& appWebRequest, String& appHostHeaderRedirectDomain, String& appSiteDomainPrefix, String& subscriptionName, String& appSiteDomainId, Uri& primaryUri)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.LookupSiteInfo(SPFarm farm, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, Uri& requestUri, Boolean& lookupRequiredContext, Guid& applicationId, Guid& contentDatabaseId, Guid& siteId, Guid& siteSubscriptionId, SPUrlZone& zone, String& serverRelativeUrl, Boolean& hostHeaderIsSiteName, Boolean& appWebRequest, String& appHostHeaderRedirectDomain, String& appSiteDomainPrefix, String& subscriptionName, String& appSiteDomainId, Uri& primaryUri)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite.LookupSiteInfo(SPFarm farm, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, Uri& requestUri, Boolean& lookupRequiredContext, Guid& applicationId, Guid& contentDatabaseId, Guid& siteId, Guid& siteSubscriptionId, SPUrlZone& zone, SPResourcePath& serverRelativeUrl, Boolean& hostHeaderIsSiteName, Boolean& appWebRequest, String& appHostHeaderRedirectDomain, String& appSiteDomainPrefix, String& subscriptionName, String& appSiteDomainId, Uri& primaryUri)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, Boolean swapSchemeForPathBasedSites, SPUserToken userToken, Boolean readOnlyIntent)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(SPFarm farm, Uri requestUri, Boolean contextSite, SPUserToken userToken, Boolean readOnlyIntent)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite..ctor(String requestUrl, SPUserToken userToken)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPAllUserClaimProvider.IsEveryoneClaimEnabledInTenantSetting(Uri context)

Cause

This issue is occurring because the new Claims Provider for People Picker is being used by default at the Farm level, but only scoped for a particular Site Collection.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, reconfigure new SPTrustedBackedByUPAClaimProvider so it’s not used by default.

Example:

After setting the new claim provider to “IsUsedByDefault=$false”, you should be able to create a new Root Site Collection without failure.