Reopening - [BUG] New-PnPSite not working with HubSiteID > Unauthorized

[NoralK]

Reporting an Issue or Missing Feature

Reopening #3594

I'm unable to run New-PnpSite when providing a -hubSiteID. When I run it without providing the -HubSiteID, it works. I have the SharePoint Admin role active and in the SharePoint admin center I can perform this action.

More information - GCC Tenant - The hub does not require authorization, as the SharePoint Admin I have created and am a admin over all site collections.

Expected behavior

Create a site with a hub association during creation.

Actual behavior

Line |
  32 |  New-PnPSite -Url "https://orgname.sharepoint.com/sites/testTeam" `
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | {"error":{"code":"-2147024891, System.UnauthorizedAccessException","message":"Attempted to perform an unauthorized
     | operation."}}

Steps to reproduce behavior

Import-Module -Name PnP.PowerShell
Connect-PnPOnline https://orgname-admin.sharepoint.com/ -Interactive

$hub = Get-PnPHubSite -Identity "https://orgname.sharepoint.com/sites/IT"

New-PnPSite -Url "https://orgname.sharepoint.com/sites/testTeam" `
    -Type TeamSiteWithoutMicrosoft365Group `
    -Title "Test Team Site" `
    -Description "Test Team Site Description" `
    -Owner "[email protected]" `
    -HubSiteId $hub.SiteId #00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 FYI GUID is scrubbed

I performed the suggestion by @gautamdsheth to use the GUID to create the site, this did not work. As mentioned by OP and now me, running Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation after the site creation succeeds.

What is the version of the Cmdlet module you are running?

In PS-ISE - v1.12.0
In vsCode and PowerShell v7.4.1 - v2.3.0

Which operating system/environment are you running PnP PowerShell on?

• [ X ] Windows
• Linux
• MacOS
• Azure Cloud Shell
• Azure Functions
• Other : please specify

[gautamdsheth]

@veronicageek - can you also try and reproduce this issue ? I couldn't , so not sure if we can do anything about this. For me, it works everytime.

[NoralK]

@gautamdsheth @veronicageek - Could it be due to our Tenant being a GCC?

[gautamdsheth]

No idea, can you maybe try setting the owner parameter the same as the one you use to connect to and try again ?

[NoralK]

My bad, I need to update to original code. I specified the owner being an email address when in fact it is an Azure AD Group.

New-PnPSite -Url "https://orgname.sharepoint.com/sites/testTeam" `
    -Type TeamSiteWithoutMicrosoft365Group `
    -Title "Test Team Site" `
    -Description "Test Team Site Description" `
    -Owner "<<AzureAD Group Display Name>>" `
    -HubSiteId $hub.SiteId #00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 FYI GUID is scrubbed

Therefore the (Get-PnPSite).Owner is blank. I looked at the documenation again, New-PnPSite ... (parms) ... -Owner ... If this parameter is skipped or a group object is provided, the user running New-PnPSite command will be set as a site owner., this is not happening, again it is blank.

[NoralK]

@gautamdsheth @veronicageek any updates?

[gautamdsheth]

No updates and we can't repro it either, will move it to discussion forum in case someone in the community has idea.

[J03rg]

We are encountering the exact same issue. However, we noticed that changing a specific setting in the SharePoint admin center resolves it immediately. We've tested this multiple times, and it consistently shows the same behavior.

Disabling "Show the options to create a site in SharePoint and create a shared library from OneDrive" and running:
New-PnPSite -Url "https://orgname.sharepoint.com/sites/test-5" -Type CommunicationSite -Owner "AAD-Group" -Title "Test5" -HubSiteId "af3edcd7-105d-44b9-9fa9-19d8989ac617"
throws the same error:
{"error":{"code":"-2147024891, System.UnauthorizedAccessException","message":"Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation."

Enabling the setting and running the same command works fine.
Not sure how or why this setting relates to the hub site association, but we tried it multiple times in a row and as soon as we enable the setting, it works immediately.

Mentioned Setting: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/manage-site-creation
"Users can create SharePoint sites" is enabled and it doesn't cause an issue.
Only the second option, "Show the options to create a site in SharePoint and create a shared library from OneDrive," causes the issue.

[michhes]

Same issue here when provisioning a CommunicationSite (TeamSite works fine). Notably running Add-PnPHubSiteAssociatio after creating a communication site functions as expected.

New-PnPSite -Type CommunicationSite -Title 'Test' -Url 'https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/sites/test' -HubSiteId '30c5bf44-b5aa-427f-a21b-ec9366aaa329'
New-PnPSite: {"error":{"code":"-2147024891, System.UnauthorizedAccessException","message":"Attempted to perform an unauthorized operation."}}