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Question

Question

Using the Admin Account To Log Into Forms

Forms Licensing
Updated April 27, 2020
asked on April 13, 2016

For years the Admin account has been used to administer Laserfiche using a limited built-in license so that you:

  1. Can get into Laserfiche if all other accounts had their access removed.
  2. Don't necessarily have to buy a license for system admins who are administering Laserfiche but not using it.  

While this works fine for Laserfiche, it is causing some issues in Forms as there appears to be no way to log into Forms 10 with the admin account if it does not also have a "read/write" license associated with it.  As Forms carries the sames administrative issues & emergencies, why is this same admin license not applied to Forms?

 

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Replies

replied on September 19, 2019

Any updates on this? Our clients are very frustrated that a named license needs to be allocated to an account that is used specifically for administrative purposes.

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replied on April 19, 2016

I'm having the exact same issue.

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replied on November 18, 2016

I completely agree.  Not being able to configure and administer Forms using the admin account is very cumbersome for us.  I think Laserfiche should re-consider allowing admin access to Forms.

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replied on November 18, 2016 • Show version history

The special status of the built-in ADMIN user is due to how the Laserfiche server interprets the login for security. However, Forms maintains its own "list of users" for assigning security, etc, because it has its own security considerations to worry about and really doesn't need to care about repository-level security, this latter becoming especially moot if Forms is configured to use LFDS authentication where there is no repository to base any existing security on.

For either Laserfiche repository or LFDS authentication with Forms, login access is provided to all users with either a read/write named user license or an authenticated Participant license. (Upon synchronization with the corresponding User Authentication source, that is.) If using Laserfiche repository authentication and the built-in ADMIN user has not been assigned a read/write named user license, then it is ineligible for login to Forms.

In the Forms Configuration page in the User Authentication tab, you will specify one account meeting this licensing criterion to serve as the initial "System Administrator" which you use to set up system security, etc. For LFDS authentication, there is the additional criterion that the user must belong to a whitelisted LFDS group. For Laserfiche repository authentication, there is actually the additional requirement that this user have the Manage Trustees privilege. This can be thought of as the Forms analogue of the ADMIN user in a repository.

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replied on November 28, 2016

I understand your point but that still requires a license to access Forms.  The beauty of the ADMIN account is that a customer could use all of their licenses for end users and the ADMIN account could be used for emergency access.  As it stands now, if this were to happen they would have to take a license away from a user so that an emergency account could get into Forms.  It would be nice to see Forms have an "ADMIN" account not tied to any repository that could be used for the same purpose.  Emergencies happen and up until Forms, Laserfiche had been good at providing an emergency access account.

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replied on November 28, 2016

The named user requirement for the initial Forms Configuration/Laserfiche Server authentication setup is only one-time and used during initial setup. After that, the account is never used again.

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replied on November 28, 2016

No, a licensed account is required to log into Forms to manually sync users, administer data sources, admin Teams, research stuck instances, and many of the other non-forms builder/participant/submitter activities that an admin might need to be able to do.  How can these tasks be accomplished without a licensed account?

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replied on November 28, 2016 • Show version history

You can review this help page where under the "Laserfiche Repository Users" section, it states

This account will be used by Forms the first time it logs in to the server. When Laserfiche Forms successfully connects to the Laserfiche Server, it will activate the special FormsUser$ account, which it will use when connecting to the Laserfiche Server in the future. Once this occurs, Forms will no longer use the account you specified to connect to the Laserfiche Server.

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replied on November 28, 2016

Beau, Forms does not have the concept of administrative privileges separate from being a "participant" in processes. All administrative rights come on top of being  allowed to participate in processes. The actions you're describing are part of being a Forms user. And being a Forms user requires that you are a named user.

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replied on November 29, 2016

Using your logic then their is no point for the ADMIN account in the repositories as everything it does falls into the actions of being a "licensed administrator" and thus that account should not exist either.  I understand how it works but obviously from the other responses received, I am not alone in being used to administering the Laserfiche environment via a special account.  This has never been an issue until Forms and I am increasingly seeing it as customers have been designed & trained to handle their environment one way over the past 20+ years and Forms does not follow in the same logic.  It would be nice to see consistency where an "ADMIN" account with limited abilities so it is not used as a license (just like the admin account for the repositories) is available for emergency situations.  I understand that is not likely to happen but myself, as well as a few other people who have responded to this (and I'd wager even more who have not), would like to point out this issue we are facing.

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replied on November 18, 2016

I have the same issue relatively often too.

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replied on February 28, 2019

We have the same issue and would love to see it resolved without having to tell the client they need to buy us a "service" user license to admin or manage their processes.

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replied on April 27, 2020 • Show version history

I'll add my name to this list as well; having to ask the client to purchase an additional licence for the sole purpose of their SP administering Forms is not good. Especially considering we don't have to do the same thing for other areas like the repository.

Also - would be good not to have to temporarily assign the Forms service account a full user licence just for the quick task of creating/editing a connection profile.

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