How do you administer Confluence?
10 min
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Define Atlassian cloud organizations, sites, and apps
- Describe the different types of admins in Confluence
- Describe Confluence admin responsibilities
- Identify key tools of Confluence administration
What's an Atlassian cloud organization?
Before you start administering Confluence, it’s helpful to understand how everything is structured in and around the app, and how administration works at each level.
At the highest level of the structure is an Atlassian organization, which is a centralized place for managing your apps and users. Each organization can have one or more Atlassian site. Each site can have licenses for one or more Atlassian apps. The Confluence app can have one or more spaces.
👇 Click the icons below to see how Confluence fits into Acme Inc.'s organization, sites, apps, and spaces.
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Confluence is an app in the Atlassian System of Work. You may still hear it referred to as a ‘product.' Know that app and product mean the same thing. Learn more about the change at Atlassian Community.
Also, the terms ‘site’ and ‘instance’ are often used when referring to the Confluence app you administer. For example, the global permissions page is where you manage what different groups of users can do on your Confluence site.
Different admin roles that support Confluence
There are several different admin roles that are granted through Atlassian Administration and support Confluence. A person may have more than one admin role.
- The organization admin, or org admin, operates at the organization and app levels. They are the only individuals who can access the organization’s settings. They manage users, groups, and app access within their organization.
- The app admin operates at the app level. They manage administration settings for a specific app, such as Confluence. In Confluence, they’re known as the Confluence admin.
- A space admin can administer one or more individual space in Confluence. As a general rule, all space admins can manage their space details and space access.
👇 Click the tabs below to learn more about each admin role.
The org admin operates at the organization and site levels.
Here are some things an org admin can do:
- Manage users and groups for all sites
- Manage app access and Confluence admin access
- Grant a user license
- Manage security, like SSO and domains
- Bypass page restrictions with admin key
- Add, upgrade, and remove apps
- Manage some billing details
- Configure site settings
👇 An org admin operates at the organization and site levels.
What does a Confluence admin do?
Confluence admins manage global settings, site analytics, and other settings and configurations for their organization’s Confluence site. They implement high-level organizational strategies, which ensures the site structure aligns with the company's objectives. They also maintain security and compliance across all spaces. A Confluence admin is different from a Confluence space admin, who focuses on the configuration and customization of only their spaces.
Here are the main responsibilities of a Confluence admin:
- View user access
- Manage global permissions
- Configure Confluence site settings and functionality
- Customize the look and feel of the site
- Monitor and troubleshoot Confluence site issues
👇Click the tabs to learn more about the responsibilities of a Confluence admin.
Confluence admins have a high-level view of what a user or group can access in Confluence.
Admin tools and features
Confluence supports admins with several tools and features to help you to efficiently manage and optimize your Confluence environment.
To access Confluence admin tools, select the Confluence administration icon from the top navigation bar.
👇Here’s how you access Confluence admin tools.
👇Click the tabs to learn more about the different admin tools in Confluence.
The first thing you’ll see on the Confluence administration page is mission control. This dashboard keeps admins aligned and informed so they can stay proactive while overseeing global activity.
In addition to mission control, admins have access to detailed site analytics and an audit log for monitoring issues and changes.
👇Use mission control to oversee global activity.
Best practices
Here are a few best practices to optimize your experience as a Confluence admin:
- Regularly review and update user permissions to maintain security.
- Engage with users to gather feedback and improve the Confluence experience.
- Stay informed about new features and updates to leverage the full potential of Confluence.