Manage administrators

Last updated on 7 August 2023

About administrator roles

Administrators are users who are allowed to log in to the Administration Console. There are two types of administrators: server administrators and virtual host administrators.

Server administrators can control all virtual hosts and perform server-level tasks, such as restarting or shutting down the server. Server administrators can access and perform all operations on all tabs.

Virtual host administrators can manage the applications on their virtual host—for example, they can reload or disconnect applications. Virtual host administrators can access and perform operations on the View Applications tabs. They cannot manage servers or administrative users.

Add administrators

Use the Administration Console to add server administrators

Note:

You must be a server administrator (not a virtual host administrator) to access the Manage Users tab.

Log in to the Administration Console as a server administrator.
Select the Manage Users tab.
Click New User.
Enter the user name and password and click Save.

The Administration Console adds the new user and password to the Users.xml file. You do not need to restart either server.

Edit the Users.xml file to add server administrators

Open the rootinstall/conf/Users.xml file.
Locate the UserList section.

Add a new <User></User> section for each server administrator you want to add.

The User name attribute specifies the user name. The Password element specifies the password. The Allow, Deny, and Order elements specify the hosts from which the administrator can connect to the Administration Console. The following sample XML adds a user who can connect from any domain:

 <UserList> 
     <User name="${SERVER.ADMIN_USERNAME}"> 
         <Password encrypt="false">${SERVER.ADMIN_PASSWORD}</Password> 
         <Allow></Allow> 
         <Deny></Deny> 
         <Order>Allow,Deny</Order> 
     </User> 
     <User name="janedoe"> 
         <Password encrypt="false">S4mpl3P4ss</Password> 
         <Allow></Allow> 
         <Deny></Deny> 
         <Order>Allow,Deny</Order> 
     </User> 
 </UserList>

For more information, see the comments in the Users.xml file.

Validate the XML and save the Users.xml file.

Add virtual host administrators

Open the Users.xml file in the root folder of the virtual host; for example, rootinstall/conf/_defaultRoot_/www.sampleVhost.com/Users.xml. If the file doesn’t exist, copy the Users.xml file from the rootinstall/conf folder.
Locate the UserList section.

Add a new <User></User> section for each virtual host administrator you want to add.

 <UserList> 
     <User name="${SERVER.ADMIN_USERNAME}"> 
         <Password encrypt="false">${SERVER.ADMIN_PASSWORD}</Password> 
         <Allow></Allow> 
         <Deny></Deny> 
         <Order>Allow,Deny</Order> 
     </User> 
     <User name="vHostAdmin"> 
         <Password encrypt="false">Ex4mpl3P4ss</Password> 
         <Allow></Allow> 
         <Deny></Deny> 
         <Order>Allow,Deny</Order> 
     </User> 
 </UserList>

For more information, see the comments in the Users.xml file.

Validate the XML and save the Users.xml file.

Delete administrator accounts and reset passwords

Only server administrators (not virtual host administrators) can perform operations on the Manage Users tab.

Passwords are stored as salted hashes in the rootinstall/conf/Users.xml configuration file.

Delete user account

Log in to the Administration Console as a server administrator.
Click Manage Users.
Select a user.
Click Delete This User Account On The Server.
Confirm the action.

Reset user password

Log in to the Administration Console as a server administrator.
Click Manage Users.
Select a user.
Click Reset The Password For This User.
Enter a new password.

Use the command line to reset a user password

Open a shell window.
Go to the Adobe Media Server installation directory:

(Windows) C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Media Server 5.0

(Linux) /opt/adobe/fms
Stop Adobe Media Server and Adobe Media Administration Server. See Start and stop the server.
Enter one of the following:
- (Windows) amsadmin -console -user <username>
- (Linux) ./amsadmin -console -user <username>
Enter an eight character password.

Note:

The password is not exposed because terminal echo is off.

Use the Administration API to reset a user password

Call the changePswd() API.

For more information about using the Administration API, see Working with the Administration API.

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