Instance health - Internal administrator user error - I have an internal admin account
Asked by Jonathan Smith:

Hi all,

Confluence thinks I don't have an internal admin user, but I do have one... This is the only account in the internal directory. Any idea how I can get Confluence to recognize the admin account so I can make my health check happy?

##### *Result* {#toc-hId-1205613159}

*Confluence has an enabled internal user directory, however its administrator account does not exist or is disabled*

![adminpic.jpg](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20553i790E8AFB4DB518D9/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "adminpic.jpg")


Answers:
author: Jonathan Smith
body: [@Alfredo Negrete](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1149251)

1. Navigate to global permissions
2. Add your admin account to the individual users section.

![admin.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22109iC35C8AB96C328033/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "admin.jpg")

comments: author: Andr? Lundin
body: This is the only solution that worked for us.


author: AnnWorley
body: For Jonathan, the workaround was to explicitly add the internal admin to the System administrator and Confluence administrator permissions in Confluence Admin\>Global permissions. That made the internal admin pass the health check.

Since the Confluence-administrators group from LDAP was in the global permissions, somehow confluence-administrators was not being seen by the health check as a super group so the members were not considered internal admins. I have opened a ticket internally to address either the documentation or the health check, since there is a discrepancy in the behavior versus the doc.

comments: author: Alfredo Negrete
body: I'm getting the same error...I'm not following what you did to fix the issue.


author: AnnWorley
body: Hi Jonathan,

Please make sure the internal admin user is a member of the confluence-administrators group as that membership makes the account a super user, as mentioned in [Confluence Admin Permission Levels Explained](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/confluence-admin-permission-levels-explained-604209420.html):

The confluence-administrators group defines a set of "super users" who can access the Administration Console and perform site-wide administration. Members of this group can also see the content of all pages and spaces in the Confluence instance, regardless of space permissions.

I look forward to hearing whether the internal admin is an admin or just internal. ;)

Thanks,

Ann

comments: author: Jonathan Smith
body: For the admin account:

* Directory = Internal
* Group membership = **c**onfluence-administrators and confluence-users

Notes:

* My User Directory configuration has ++Active Directory on top of Internal Directory++.
* We have an AD group called **C** onfluence-administrators. **C**onfluence-administrators is added in the global permissions.
* Local group = **c**onfluence-administrators
* I found groups to be case sensitive during group name changes in AD.

Assumptions:

AD is trumping Internal directory. Internal directory groups kick in when I manually log in as admin (because I can do sys admin content with this account).

I can't add **c**onfluence-administrators to global permissions because the AD one is named the same.

Thoughts on a potential fix?

Rename the AD Confluence-administrators group to something different. See if I can then add the local confluence-administrators group to global permissions?

I am not sure if local groups will pop in the group selection since AD is on top of local directory.


author: AnnWorley
body: Based on [Comparing the confluence-administrators group with the administrator permissions](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/global-permissions-overview-138709.html#GlobalPermissionsOverview-Comparingtheconfluence-administratorsgroupwiththeadministratorpermissions), if the admin account is part of the confluence-administrators local group, the health check should not be failing:
> You can't change the global permissions granted to the `confluence-administrators` group. If you don't want your admins to be able to see all spaces and restricted pages, you can create a new group, and grant that group the Confluence administrator and system administrator global permissions.

So that we can take a closer look at your logs and configuration files I have opened a support request on your behalf. After it is resolved we can circle back to update this thread.