This version of GitHub Enterprise Server was discontinued on 2024-09-25. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise Server. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Promoting or demoting a site administrator

Site administrators can promote any normal user account to a site administrator, as well as demote other site administrators to regular users.

In this article

Note

For information about promoting a user to an organization owner, see the ghe-org-admin-promote section of "Command-line utilities."

Considerations with external authentication

If you use certain external authentication features, you may not be able to manage promotion and demotion from the enterprise settings or command line:

  • If you use SAML authentication, and have not selected Disable administrator demotion/promotion in the SAML settings in the site admin dashboard, administrator rights will be determined by your SAML provider.
  • If you have enabled SCIM provisioning, for SCIM-provisioned users, you must manage roles from your identity provider.
  • If LDAP Sync is enabled, and the Administrators group attribute is set when configuring LDAP access for users, those users will automatically have site administrator access to your instance. To promote users, you must add them to the LDAP Administrators group.

Promoting a user from the enterprise settings

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click People.

  3. Under " People", click Administrators.

  4. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Add owner.

  5. In the search field, type the name of the user, then click Add.

Demoting a site administrator from the enterprise settings

  1. In the top-right corner of GitHub Enterprise Server, click your profile photo, then click Enterprise settings.

    Screenshot of the drop-down menu that appears when you click the profile photo on GitHub Enterprise Server. The "Enterprise settings" option is highlighted in a dark orange outline.

  2. On the left side of the page, in the enterprise account sidebar, click People.

  3. Under " People", click Administrators.

  4. In the upper-left corner of the page, in the "Find an administrator" search field, type the username of the person you want to demote.

  5. In the search results, find the username of the person you want to demote, then select the dropdown menu and click Convert to member.

    Screenshot of a user in the enterprise administrators list. A dropdown menu, labeled with a kebab icon, is highlighted with an orange outline.

Promoting a user from the command line

  1. SSH into your appliance.

  2. Run ghe-user-promote with the username to promote.

    ghe-user-promote USERNAME

Demoting a site administrator from the command line

  1. SSH into your appliance.

  2. Run ghe-user-demote with the username to demote.

    ghe-user-demote USERNAME