The authentication method of your Spotfire environment determines how users are added to the Spotfire database and where they are administered.

If your Spotfire implementation is configured for authentication towards the Spotfire database, the administrator adds and administers user accounts directly in the database by using the Spotfire Server administration interface.

If your implementation uses an external user directory such as LDAP, user accounts are added and administered in that context rather than in the server. Changes are copied to the Spotfire database during synchronization.

All users are organized in groups. Any user who is entered into the system automatically becomes a member of the Everyone group; this group cannot be deleted and will always contain all registered users. Licenses, which control access to Spotfire features, are assigned to groups, never to individual users.

In addition to the Everyone group, a user can belong to any number of groups, and has access to all of the license features that are enabled for those groups.