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Work with the initial administrator account

After you've installed Portal for ArcGIS, specify the first name, last name, username, password, email address, 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 the user type after signing in to the portal.

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-based client certificate authentication for portal authentication.

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

Character limitations

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

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

Delete the initial administrator account

Once the initial administrator account is created, any built-in account created later will not have the character limitations. If 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 in to your organization using the initial administrator account.
  2. Add a built-in member for the portal administrator, and ensure that they are assigned the administrator role.

    Although you are not restricted to the same character limitations as the initial administrator account, the username must be between 6 and 128 ASCII characters. The password must be at least 8 characters and have at least 1 number and letter.

  3. Change the ownership of the Featured Maps and Apps group to the new administrator account you created.
  4. Sign in with the new (second) administrator account and delete the initial administrator account.

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