Configuring administrator group settings > Managing administrator groups
 
Managing administrator groups
Note  The following information is for server administrators.
As the server administrator, you can use administrator groups to delegate database administration tasks to other users. You retain exclusive and complete control of FileMaker Server. Group administrators are not allowed to configure FileMaker Server, and you specify which database administration tasks you want to allow group administrators to do. See Configuring administrator group settings.
1. Click the General Settings > Administrator Groups tab.
2. Click Add.
3. Enter the configuration information for the administrator group:
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To
Do this
Enter the group name and password of the administrator group
•Group Name: The group administrator enters this name when logging in to Admin Console. The group can’t be the same as the Server Administrator name. It can be up to 50 characters. You cannot use a slash (/) in the name.
•Group Password and Confirm Password: See Understanding password strength.
•Password Hint: The hint is displayed on the Login page after three failed attempts to enter the user name and password.
Use an optional external group for authentication
Select Use external group and enter an optional domain or local machine name followed by the external authentication group name. For example: groupname, domain\groupname, or groupname@localmachine. The external group cannot be associated with the Admin Console account. See Admin Console settings.
You can limit the number of external groups FileMaker Server searches when authenticating users by specifying the domain or local machine name in either of the following formats:
•domain\group or localmachine\group
•group@domain or group@localmachine
If you do not specify a domain or local machine name, FileMaker Server searches:
•macOS: the local machine only
•Windows: the domain, if the computer is a member of a domain, then searches the local machine
To test your external group authentication setting, click Test External Group.
Important  For guidelines for using external authentication groups, see External authentication for Admin Console and administrator groups.
Select the FileMaker Server group folder that contains the databases you want to associate with the administrator group
For the Group Folder, click Select Folder. Select the FileMaker Server group folder. See FileMaker Server group folders.
•Folders that are not associated with an administrator group and are available to select have the following folder icon in the Select Folder dialog box: Icon indicating folders that are not associated with administrator group
•Folders that are already associated with an administrator group and are not available to select for another group have the following group folder icon: Icon indicating folders that are associated with administrator group.
•The parent folder or subfolder of an existing group folder cannot be selected as a group folder, as indicated by the following folder icon: Icon indicating folders that are associated with administrator group
Select the FileMaker Server administrator group privileges
On the Details tab, select the group privileges. See FileMaker Server administrator group privileges.
Configure Group Launch Center for the administrator group
Click the Group Launch Center tab, then select Enable Group Launch Center.
Remove an administrator group
Select the name in Group Name, then click Remove.
Note  The databases in the group folder and all associated schedules are not deleted when you remove a group.
Notes
•Users in an associated external authentication group can log in using the group name and password in addition to their external user name and password. See External authentication for Admin Console and administrator groups.
•If you change the properties or privileges for an administrator group while a group administrator is logged in to that group, FileMaker Server displays a message that the group properties are immediately updated, and the current session will close. When you continue, the group administrator’s session is closed. Ask the group administrator to log out of Admin Console before you save any changes to the group properties or privileges.
•Schedules are associated with databases, not with administrator groups. If you change the group folder for an administrator group, the schedules displayed in the Schedules pane will change to the schedules that are associated with the databases in the new group folder.
•If a schedule performs a task on a database that is in an administrator group, the group’s name is listed next to the schedule in the Schedules pane for server administrators only.
•To change a group folder for a saved administrator group from a subfolder to the default or additional database folder, you must first remove the saved administrator group. Then you can create a new group and select the default or additional database folder in the Select Folder dialog box.
•If a group folder is deleted, renamed, or moved by using file system tools, a group administrator can log in to Admin Console. The group administrator cannot perform any database administration tasks because the association with the original group folder name has become invalid and there are no databases in the group. You must specify a new valid group folder for the group on the General Settings > Administrator Groups tab.
•The server administrator can create all types of schedules for a particular group except system-level script schedules. Group administrators must create their own system-level script schedules for their groups. After the groups’ system-level script schedules are created, the server administrator can perform all actions on them.
•If multiple users log in to the same group administrator account at the same time, only one user can edit a particular schedule.
•Whenever the server administrator adds, changes, renames, or removes an administrator group, an event is logged in the Event.log file. See Event log.
Related topics 
External authentication for database access
FileMaker Server Group Launch Center
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