The following two levels of server administration exist:

• Users who are members of the local Administrator group on each server in the server farm can perform all administrative functions.
• Users who are members of the SharePoint administrators group but are not members of the local Administrators group can perform maintenance-level tasks only. For example, such users cannot perform tasks such as creating or deleting a portal site, or creating or disconnecting a configuration database.

To enable a user to be a server farm administrator for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you must add that user to the local Administrators group on each server in the server farm.

Grant administrative access to the server farm

1. On the taskbar, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
2. Under System Tools, expand Local Users and Groups, and then click Groups.
3. Right-click Administrators, and then click Add to Group.
4. In the Administrators Properties dialog box, click Add.
5. In the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog box, in the Enter the object names to select box, type the name of the user account or group account that you want to add to the group, and then click OK.
6. Click OK to close the Administrators Properties dialog box.

You can also add users to the SharePoint administrators group. Members of this group do not need to be members of the local Administrators group to perform administration tasks for SharePoint Products and Technologies. However, the SharePoint administrators group cannot perform the following actions:

• Extend or unextend a virtual server.
• Change the SharePoint administrators group.
• Manage paths (inclusions and exclusions).
• Change the configuration database.

You can specify the SharePoint administrators group from the Set SharePoint administrative group account link in the Security Configuration section on the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for server_name page. For information about the SharePoint administrators group, see Managing the SharePoint Administrators Group.