permission setting with confluence /system administrator
Asked by Anderson Hsu:

Hi,  
I can find the difference between them at link <https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/global-permissions-overview-138709.html#GlobalPermissionsOverview-ComparingtheSystemAdministratorwiththeConfluenceAdministratorPermission>, but let me confirm one thing.  
After install confluence, admin account is system administrator, and it belong confluence-administrators group. If another account join the group, and then he will become system administrator.  
If someone or group have added to confluence administrator at global permission, and then they will become confluence administrator.

![permission.png](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/126425i6259F9BA5826B0F2/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "permission.png")


Answers:
author: Thiago Masutti
body: Hi [@Anderson Hsu](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/626040)

Administration permissions on Confluence are sort-of hierarchical.

If a user is part of the **confluence-administrators** group, then it has both the '**Confluence Administrator** ' and '**System Administrator** ' global permissions. In addition to this, this user will be able to read any page in Confluence.  
Think of this as the *root* user in Linux.

The first admin account you create when installing Confluence is part of that group by default.

If you assign a user (or group) to the '**System Administrator** ' global permission, then it will have the same permissions a '**Confluence Administrator** ' has, plus what '**System Administrator**' brings.

At the bottom we have the '**Confluence Administrator**' global permission. This gives the minimum access to administer Confluence.

If you think of them as a set of capabilities, the confluence-administrators group encompasses both global permissions.

The image below might help on visualizing this.

![permissions-admin-1.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/126458i6E4CD48451D33626/image-dimensions/332x335?v=v2 "permissions-admin-1.png")

Let me know if this helped with your questions.

Kind regards,  
Thiago Masutti

comments: author: Anderson Hsu
body: Does it mean when someone or group which have added system administrator permission, it mean the account or group is equal **confluence-administrators group permissioin?**


author: Thiago Masutti
body: In terms of what they can do in the administrator console, yes.

However, System Administrators cannot access Spaces for which they are not granted permissions, nor pages with view restrictions.


author: Anderson Hsu
body: Do you mean confluence administrator?

Because

**System Administrator** -- A person with 'System Administrator' permission has full administrative access to Confluence.


author: Thiago Masutti
body: I meant System Administrator.

The Confluence Administrator permission gives access to **some** functionalities in the admin console.

The System Administrator permission gives access to **all** functionalities in the admin console.

The confluence-administrators group gives access to **all** functionalities in the admin console (same as System Administrator) plus access to all Spaces and pages, no matter the restrictions.


Tags: confluence-server

server