Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about administering a Canvus Connect server that don't fit neatly elsewhere in the manual. If you don't find an answer here, check Installation and Administration, or see Command-line arguments for the full CLI reference.
How do I create a local emergency admin account from the CLI?
Use this when the web UI is unreachable, your SSO/LDAP provider is down, or every existing administrator is locked out. Creating a user directly through mt-canvus-server writes straight to the Canvus database, bypassing any external authentication provider — so it works even when those are the thing that's broken.
Warning
Passing a password directly on the command line is not secure on a shared system — anyone who can read the shell history or process list can see it. Omit the password argument and Canvus generates a random one, printed once to the console.
1. Open a command line with administrator privileges
- Windows: Start menu → type
cmd→ right-click Command Prompt → Run as administrator. - Ubuntu (bare-metal): open a terminal; prefix each command below with
sudo. - Podman/Docker (containerised): open a terminal on the host. You only need enough privilege to run
podman exec— root inside the container is handled for you.
2. Create the account
- Windows:
"C:\Program Files\MT Canvus Server\bin\mt-canvus-server.exe" --create-admin admin@local.local - Ubuntu (bare-metal):
sudo /opt/mt-canvus-server/bin/mt-canvus-server --create-admin admin@local.local - Podman/Docker (containerised):
sudo podman exec -it canvus-combined mt-canvus-server --create-admin admin@local.local
Add a password after the email (--create-admin admin@local.local YourStrongPassword) if you'd rather set one explicitly instead of using the generated one.
This creates admin@local.local as a full administrator, independent of any existing login provider.
3. Confirm the account exists
- Windows:
"C:\Program Files\MT Canvus Server\bin\mt-canvus-server.exe" --list-users - Ubuntu (bare-metal):
sudo /opt/mt-canvus-server/bin/mt-canvus-server --list-users - Podman/Docker (containerised):
sudo podman exec -it canvus-combined mt-canvus-server --list-users
Look for admin@local.local in the output, flagged as an admin and not blocked.
4. Sign in
Open the Canvus server web UI as normal and sign in with admin@local.local and the password you set (or the generated one printed in step 2).
If something goes wrong
Forgot the password, or need to reset it — use --change-password in place of --create-admin:
- Windows:
"C:\Program Files\MT Canvus Server\bin\mt-canvus-server.exe" --change-password admin@local.local - Ubuntu:
sudo /opt/mt-canvus-server/bin/mt-canvus-server --change-password admin@local.local - Podman:
sudo podman exec -it canvus-combined mt-canvus-server --change-password admin@local.local
Account shows as blocked — run --unblock-user admin@local.local with the same per-platform prefix as above.
See Command-line arguments for the full list of user-management commands.
5. Clean up once you're back in
This account is for emergencies — don't leave it as a standing backdoor. Once normal admin access is restored, either delete it or block it for next time:
- Delete:
--delete-user admin@local.local - Block (keeps it in reserve, unblock later in seconds):
--block-user admin@local.local
Prefix either command with the platform-specific binary path or podman exec wrapper shown in step 2.