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Parent and Child Site Administrators

Files.com runs two tiers of Site Administrator access across a parent-and-children hierarchy. Parent Site Administrators have full access to every Child Site.

Child Site Administrator access grants full administration of a single Child Site; it remains subordinate to the Parent Site's administrative authority. A parent-site user can also be delegated Site Administrator access to a Child Site without being re-provisioned in that Child Site. See Child Sites for an overview of what Child Sites are.

Parent Site Administrators

A Parent Site Administrator has full Site Administrator authority on the Parent Site and every Child Site, including access to all files and full management of users, settings, and integrations. This applies to every Parent Site Administrator, regardless of who created the Child Site. They can switch into any Child Site and operate as its Site Administrator, and can reach Child Site content directly from the Parent Site through the underscore folder.

This authority is a fixed part of the Parent and Child Site model, allowing the organization responsible for the hierarchy to administer every site within it. It cannot be disabled or restricted for someone who remains a Parent Site Administrator. A Child Site's permissions, separate SSO configuration, and local administrators cannot exclude a Parent Site Administrator.

Child Site Management Policies lock selected settings when working inside a Child Site, including when a Parent Site Administrator has switched into it. Parent Site Administrators control those policies on the Parent Site and can change or remove them. A policy therefore does not limit their ultimate authority over a Child Site.

A Parent Site Administrator can:

Files.com support handles Child Site removal at a Parent Site Administrator's request.

When a Parent Site Administrator acts through _/Sites/<child-site-id>, both Sites record the activity using their own paths. Activity performed directly within the Child Site is recorded there only. See Child Sites History and Logging.

Keep the number of Parent Site Administrators as small as possible. Grant that access only to people trusted to manage the Parent Site and every Child Site. Protect those accounts with two-factor authentication and carefully protect their passwords, API keys, and other credentials: access to a Parent Site Administrator account carries authority over the entire hierarchy.

People who administer only selected Child Sites should receive the delegated access described below or accounts on those Child Sites, without Site Administrator status on the Parent Site. Centralizing an account on the Parent Site does not require making it a Parent Site Administrator. Reducing who has Parent Site Administrator access is how you limit who has full authority over every Child Site; Child Site settings cannot narrow that authority.

Child Site Administrators

A Child Site Administrator is a Site Administrator scoped to a single Child Site. They manage users, groups, folders, automations, integrations, security settings, branding, and SSO for their Child Site, except for settings locked by a Child Site Management Policy.

The grant gives full Site Administrator access on that Child Site, without granting folder access or administration on the Parent Site, or access to any sibling Child Site. The Parent Site can separately share its user and group directory. A parent-site account can separately hold access to other sites.

Child Site Administrator access is appropriate for the IT lead of a subsidiary, a regional operations lead, or any operator whose authority is bounded by one site.

Delegating Child Site Administration to Parent Site Users

A parent-site user can be granted Site Administrator access to a Child Site without creating a separate account on the Child Site. The user is provisioned once on the Parent Site, logs in there, and switches into the Child Site for administrative work. Group membership can also be used to grant Site Administrator access to a Child Site, so a group of administrators can be delegated to a Child Site in one assignment.

Only a Parent Site Administrator can grant or remove this delegated administrative access. Administering a folder's ordinary permissions does not grant that authority.

The account remains under administration on the Parent Site. Child Site Administrator access does not promote it to Site Administrator or Workspace Administrator on the Parent Site, and is subordinate to the account-management authority of Parent Site Administrators, Workspace Administrators, and Group Admins. Each retains their existing scope: Site Administrators manage parent-site accounts across the site, Workspace Administrators manage accounts within their Workspace scope, and Group Admins manage eligible accounts whose Primary Group they administer using the capabilities enabled by the site.

For example, a parent-site user whose Primary Group is Regional Operations can administer a regional Child Site while remaining managed by that group's Group Admin. With editing enabled, the Group Admin can change the user's email address, including the address used for password recovery.

With the edit and password-reset capabilities enabled, the Group Admin can reset the user's password and enrolled 2FA methods. Disabling or deleting the account with the required capabilities also ends its Child Site access.

The Group Admin exclusion applies if the account has Site Administrator or Workspace Administrator access on the Parent Site itself. Choose who can manage the parent-site identity with its Child Site authority in mind.

Parent Workspace Administrator and Group Admin access does not by itself grant authority to administer Child Sites or accounts created directly in them. Parent Site Administrators retain full authority over those sites and accounts.

Delegating Child Site administration to a parent-site user (or group) is the right pattern when the same person administers more than one site, when you want centralized identity for administrators, or when administrators need to move data between sites. See Data and Automations Across Child Sites.

Creating a separate Child Site Administrator account directly in the Child Site is the right pattern when the administrator works only inside that Child Site, when the Child Site has its own SSO provider, or when the administrator must connect to the Child Site via FTP, SFTP, or API keys. Protocol authentication cannot cross sites, and API keys are linked to one site.