Microsoft Introduced the Content Type Hub (CTH) in SharePoint 2010.  It allows the central management of Content Types access multiple Site Collections. Content Types are defined and configured in the CTH and published to other site collections.

I have recently migrated several SharePoint 2010 environments with Content Type Hubs to SharePoint 2013. The documentation on how to do this is a bit patchy hence this post.

Migrating the Content Type Hub

The Content Type Hub is dependent on the Managed Metadata Service.

1. Restore the Managed Metadata database and Content Type Hub content databases to the SQL Server used by your SharePoint 2013 farm.

2. Create a site collection for the Content Type Hub using the database restored in step 1.

3. Use the following PowerShell script to create a new Managed Metadata Service. Replace the database name with the name of the database restored in step 1.

$applicationPool = Get-SPServiceApplicationPool -Identity "Managed Metadata Service Application"
$mms = New-SPMetadataServiceApplication -Name "Managed Metadata Service
Application" -ApplicationPool $applicationPool -DatabaseName "SP_MMDS_Database"
New-SPMetadataServiceApplicationProxy -Name " Managed Metadata Proxy" -ServiceApplication $mms -DefaultProxyGroup

4. If the URL of your SharePoint 2013 web application is different to SharePoint 2010 you will need to update the URL in the Properties of the Managed Metadata Service Application using this PowerShell.

Set-SPMetadataServiceApplication –Identity “Managed Metadata Service Application” –HubURI http://yoursharepointsite/CTH

This will update the URL in the Properties page. Note that doing this will make all Content Types “unpublished” and you will need to republish them.

More tips:

The SharePoint Timer Jobs used to publish Content Types will have the default settings. If you want to publish / synchronise more frequently you should change these settings in Central Admin \ Monitoring \ Job Definitions. Look at the settings on these jobs:

• Content Type Hub
• Content Type Subscriber

Test publishing by going to the Content Type Hub and republishing a Content Type. If you get an error ‘No valid proxy can be found to do this operation- publishing of content type‘, check the URL of the CTH in the Managed Metadata Service properties.