About the initial administrator account

After you've installed Portal for ArcGIS, specify the first name, last name, user name, password, email, and identity question and answer of an administrator account. This account is called the initial administrator account.

The initial administrator account is required to register your portal with ArcGIS Web Adaptor. It is also required to configure Integrated Windows Authentication, LDAP, or PKI for portal authentication.

The initial administrator account user name and password are stored by Portal for ArcGIS. The initial administrator is not an operating system account, and has no relation to the Portal for ArcGIS account. Later, you can specify other accounts as administrators, demote the initial administrator to a role with fewer privileges, or delete the initial administrator if you choose.

Character limitations when creating the account

When you create the initial administrator account, the specified user name and password can only contain the following ASCII characters:

• Numbers 0 through 9
• ASCII letters A through Z (uppercase and lowercase)
• A dot (.)

Once the initial administrator account is created, any built-in account created later will not have these character limitations. If you determine the limitations of the initial administrator account are too restrictive, it is recommended that you create a second administrator account and delete the initial administrator account. To do so, follow the steps below.

1. Open the portal website and create a new portal. To do this, you will create the initial administrator account and specify the portal's content directory. When entering the user name and password for the initial administrator account, use only the ASCII characters noted above. The URL to the website is formatted https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/home.
2. When the account is created, a message shows stating that the portal will restart. Click OK.
3. After the portal restarts, you are redirected to a page indicating the ArcGIS Web Adaptor is required. At this time, configure the Web Adaptor with your portal. For full instructions, see the configuring topic for IIS, Java (Windows), or Java (Linux).
4. Open the portal website using the Web Adaptor's URL and click Sign In. The URL is formatted https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/home.
5. On the Sign In page, click Create an account.
6. Enter the information of an account you'll use to administer the portal. Although you are not restricted to the same character limitations as the initial administrator account, the user name must be between 4 and 24 characters long, and may contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores. Click Create My Account.
7. Sign out of the portal website and sign back in as the initial administrator account.
8. Click the My Organization link on the top menu and grant administrator privileges to the new account. Do this by selecting Administrator from the Role drop-down list.
9. Sign out of the portal website and sign back in as the new administrator account you created.
10. Before you can delete the initial administrator account, change the ownership of the Featured Maps and Apps group. Click the Groups link on the top menu and select Details under the Featured Maps and Apps group.
11. Click Change Owner and select the new administrator account you created from the owner drop-down list.
12. Click Change Owner. The ownership of the group transfers to the new account.
13. Click the My Organization link on the top menu and delete the initial administrator account. Do this by clicking the Delete User button next to the account.

After you delete the account, the Web Adaptor continues to work with the portal. It is not necessary to reconfigure the Web Adaptor with your portal using the credentials of the new administrator account.