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Change the ArcGIS Server account

This topic is not relevant for ArcGIS Enterprise on Linux.

You don't need to rerun the ArcGIS Server installation to change the ArcGIS Server account. After you install, you can change the account by running the Configure service account utility, which is included with the software. For example, you can do this to respond to a change in security policy or when troubleshooting your server.

The utility is designed to change the RunAs account assigned to the ArcGIS Server service and give the account read permissions to all folders in the ArcGIS Server installation directory, as well as full control permissions to the following folders:

  • <ArcGIS Server installation directory>\bin

  • <ArcGIS Server installation directory>\DatabaseSupport

  • <ArcGIS Server installation directory>\framework

  • <ArcGIS Server installation directory>\usr

After using the configureserviceaccount utility to change the ArcGIS Server service being used, use operating system tools to update the following locations used by ArcGIS Server with the following permissions:

  • Full control permissions on all server directories, the configuration store directory, and the ArcGIS Server log directory. Use ArcGIS Server Manager or the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory to locate these directories.

  • Read permissions to the directories containing the database connection files that you register with the ArcGIS Server site when publishing web services. If you use Windows authentication instead of database authentication, you must also grant the ArcGIS Server account write access.

  • Read permissions to the GIS data folders that you register with the ArcGIS Server site before publishing web services. If you allow the publishing process to copy your data to the server, the data is placed in your server directories where the ArcGIS Server account was granted permissions, and you do not have to apply any more permissions to your original server directories.

The configureserviceaccount utility is installed in the following directory: <ArcGIS Server installation directory>\tools\ConfigUtility. This tool sets the new account to run the ArcGIS Server service and grants the required privileges on the ArcGIS Server installation directory locations used by the service.

In the following example, the configureserviceaccount utility sets the domain account to run the ArcGIS Server service, grants the account the privileges required on the ArcGIS Server installation directory folders and files, and writes a configuration file with the windows account information to your disk.

Note:

The configureserviceaccount utility must be run from a command prompt window opened using the Run as administrator option.

configureserviceaccount.bat --username mydomain\username --password difficultpsswd --writeconfig c:\temp\domainaccountconfig.xml

Note:

Changing the account under which the service runs will cause the service to restart.

The configureserviceaccount utility has the following parameters:

configureserviceaccount [--username username] [--password password] [--readconfig user-configuration-file] [--writeconfig user-configuration-file]

  • username— The name used for the ArcGIS Server account

  • password— The password used for the ArcGIS Server account

  • readconfig— An optional path to a configuration file that you have saved from a previous run of the utility

  • writeconfig— An optional path where a configuration file will be saved that will allow you to apply the same properties in future runs of the utility