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About the initial administrator account

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

Note:

You can select any user type that is included in your license file and is compatible with the initial administrator account. If needed, you can change your user type after logging into the portal.

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

The initial administrator account user name and password are stored by Portal for ArcGIS. Later, you can specify other accounts as administrators. Once another administrator account is added, you can 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. Sign into your organization using the initial administrator account.
  2. Add a built-in member for the portal administrator, and ensure they are assigned the administrator role.

    Although you are not restricted to the same character limitations as the initial administrator account, the user name must be between 6 and 128 ASCII characters. The password must be at least eight characters and have at least one number and letter.

  3. Before you can delete the initial administrator account, you must change the ownership of the Featured Maps and Apps group to the new administrator account you created.
  4. You can now sign in as with new administrator account and delete the initial administrator 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.