Have you ever want to create a site collection in the root of a managed path? For example, create a site collection at http://portal.foo.bar/sitecollection. It can be done and is particularly useful on publishing sites when you don't want a managed path like sites in the URL. It can also be used for division portals like http://portal.foo.bat/HR and http://portal.foo.bar/IT
To create an embedded managed path site collection, do the following:
1. Open Central Administration > Application Management > SharePoint Web Application Management > Define Managed Paths.
2. Select the Web application in which you wish to create the managed path.
3. In the Add A New Path field, enter the name you wish for the embedded managed path site collection. In the earlier example, the name is accounting.
4. You must select Explicit Inclusion as the Type.
5. Open Central Administration > Application Management > SharePoint Site Management > Create Site Collection. This action must be performed from Central Administration. You cannot create an embedded managed path site collection using self-service site management.
6. Select the correct Web application from the list.
7. Select the Explicit Inclusion you created earlier as the URL path.
Ben Curry
Mindsharp