Change the Administrator Passphrase

The Administrator passphrase is the master passphrase for all of your WatchGuard servers. In previous versions of WatchGuard System Manager, the Administrator passphrase referred to two passphrases: the Master passphrase and the Server Management passphrase. These passphrases have been replaced by the Administrator passphrase in the 11.x release.

The Administrator passphrase is the passphrase for the admin user. The admin user is automatically created when you complete the WatchGuard Server Center Setup wizard. After you have set up WatchGuard Server Center, you can change the Administrator passphrase at any time.

You cannot change the user name of the admin user. You can only change the passphrase.

For more information about the WatchGuard Server Center Setup wizard, go to Set Up WatchGuard Servers.

For more information about how to edit users, go to Define or Remove Users or Groups.

We recommend that you back up your Management Server configuration immediately after you change the Administrator passphrase. When you create a backup configuration file, the current Administrator passphrase is stored in the file. You must use this passphrase when you restore the configuration file. If you change your Administrator passphrase, and then restore a backup configuration file with an old Administrator passphrase, the old passphrase is restored with the server configuration.

For more information about how to restore a backup configuration file, go to Back Up or Restore the Management Server Configuration.

Before you change the Administrator passphrase, make sure the admin user has logged out of the Management Server.

From WatchGuard Server Center:

  1. In the left navigation bar, select Users.
    The Users page appears.

WatchGuard Server Center Users page

  1. On the Users tab, in the Name list, select admin.
  2. Click Edit.
    The User and Group Properties dialog box appears.

User and Group Properties dialog box for the "admin" user

  1. Select the Change passphrase check box.
  2. Type and confirm the new passphrase.
  3. Click OK.

Related Topics

Set Up & Administer WatchGuard Servers

Set Up WatchGuard Servers

Back Up or Restore the Management Server Configuration

About Role-Based Administration

About Predefined Roles

Assign Roles to a User or Group

Define Roles and Role Properties

Define or Remove Users or Groups