ArcGIS Online administration
ArcGIS Online administration tests how you configure an organization, manage members and content, control access, and govern credits and licenses. The exam expects you to choose the least-privilege setting that meets a business need and to know which administrative action has side effects.
Core rules and concepts
- User types set a member’s baseline capabilities: Viewer, Editor, Creator, and GIS Professional. Roles are sets of privileges within that ceiling; custom roles let you grant only what is needed.
- Administrators can edit organization settings, invite and manage members, assign licenses, allocate credits, create groups, and configure security. The default Administrator role has all privileges.
- Member lifecycle: disabling a member preserves content and licenses but blocks sign-in; deleting requires reassigning owned content and licenses first.
- Credits are consumed by hosted feature services, geocoding, spatial analysis, and other transactions. Monitor with organization status and usage reports.
- Security: enforce MFA, configure SAML, restrict trusted domains, and review sharing settings, especially public sharing.
Worked example
A new GIS analyst must publish hosted feature layers, build web maps, and use ArcGIS Pro, but must not invite members or change organization settings. Assign the Creator user type and a custom role with content creation and publishing privileges, excluding member management and organization configuration. Add the ArcGIS Pro add-on license, allocate a credit budget, and add the analyst to the relevant group. If advanced analysis is required, consider GIS Professional. Reasoning: the user type is the capability ceiling; the role narrows privileges; the add-on license grants the desktop app; credits and group membership control cost and sharing.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating Administrator as a user type; it is a role, and assigning it grants full control.
- Giving Creator or Administrator when a Viewer or Editor with a custom role satisfies the task.
- Deleting a departing member without reassigning their content; disabling is often safer.
- Forgetting that credits are consumed by services and analysis, not just by storage.
- Assuming all content is private; check sharing levels and trusted domains.