Security Groups are the fundamental categories to which your users belong, and control access to your site's content at a high level.

NOTE: See Understand Security Groups to learn more about site security and the role Security Groups play.

NOTE: You can add users to Higher Logic Security Groups on the Admin > Users > List page. See Add Users to a Security Group to learn how.

NOTE: If you're a database/AMS-integrated client, you’ll likely see a mix of Higher Logic and database/AMS Security Groups. This article describes how to manage Higher Logic Security Groups; database Security Groups are managed and assigned to users in the AMS.

Database Security Groups have an AMS key that corresponds to the primary key for the member type/Security Group in your database. Data sync will automatically add and remove users based on your business rules on the database side only. 

To create and manage Higher Logic Security Groups:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Users > Security Groups.

Default Higher Logic Security Groups

There are four default Higher Logic Security Groups which are described below:

NOTE: These default Higher Logic Security Groups are in all Communities, including AMS-managed.

• Higher Logic Admin - Users in this Security Group are global administrators with universal access and editing rights, commonly referred to as "Super Admins."
• IsMember - Users in this Security Group have Member permissions, commonly referred to as IsMember. Specific communities, pages, and content is often only made available to Members as a benefit of membership. Those with Member permissions also have access to content and functionality set to Authenticated.
• Authenticated - Any logged in user. An authenticated user may or may not have Member status. Content and functionality is often set to Authenticated to encourage users to become members.
• Public - Any user without a login.

These baseline groups are typically comprehensive enough, but you can create additional Security Groups based on your organization's business and security needs.

AMS-managed vs. Higher Logic Security Groups

If your Higher Logic site is AMS-managed ("integrated"), you might have a mix of Higher Logic Security Groups and AMS-managed Security Groups. AMS-managed Security Groups are managed and assigned to users exclusively in your AMS/CRM, not in Higher Logic.

• AMS-managed Security Groups have an AMS key that corresponds to the primary key for the member type/Security Group in your AMS/CRM database. When that database and your Community are synchronized, users will automatically be managed (added / removed) in these Security Groups, in your Community, based on the business rules in your AMS/CRM.
• Higher Logic Security Groups are created and managed on your Community. Users are added to and removed from these Security Groups either manually in the Admin interface or via Automation Rules.

Create a Security Group

1. Click the plus sign to the right of the page title.
2. In the resulting dialog:

1. Enter a name, type, and description for your new Security Group.
2. Check the Member Status box to give users added to this Security Group Member access to your site.
3. Click Save to add the Security Group to the list.

Manage Security Groups

Select a Security Group to enable the Edit and Delete buttons at the top right.

• Edit - Click this to update a Security Group's name, type, description, and member status flag.
• Delete - Click this to delete a Security Group.

WARNING: If users belong to a Security Group you're deleting that grants Member status, those users will immediately lose Member status.

Bulk-add Users to a Security Group

With this method, you can add users to a Higher Logic-managed Security Group by uploading a .csv file of users' email addresses or integration keys.

1. Click the security group upload icon above the list.

2. Select the Security Group you want to add the users to from the menu.
3. Select the upload method: via email addresses or integration keys.

4. Click Choose File and browse for the .csv file.
5. Click Upload, followed by Yes in the confirmation dialog.

TIP: Navigate to Users > Security Groups and verify the users were added to your selected Security Group.