# Trouble creating non-admin user in 3.3.0

**URL:** <https://forum.opensearch.org/t/trouble-creating-non-admin-user-in-3-3-0/27332>\
**Category:** Security\
**Tags:** configure\
**Created:** [October 20, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/trouble-creating-non-admin-user-in-3-3-0/27332 "2025-10-20T23:59:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![klw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@klw](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/klw)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/trouble-creating-non-admin-user-in-3-3-0/27332/1 "2025-10-20T23:59:56Z")

</div>

**Versions** : Opensearch 3.3.0

**Describe the issue** :

I have just installed 3.3.0, having previously used 2.18, and due to the new security model I need to create a non-admin user.

The documentation references tools contained in a “plugins” directory, but this directory does not exist.

I am running OS on Ubuntu 24.04, installed from the official OS apt repository. The contents of my `/etc/opensearch` directory are:

```auto
$ ls -F1 /etc/opensearch
esnode-key.pem
esnode.pem
fips_java.security
jvm.options
jvm.options.d/
kirk-key.pem
kirk.pem
log4j2.properties
opensearch.keystore
opensearch-notifications/
opensearch-notifications-core/
opensearch-observability/
opensearch-reports-scheduler/
opensearch-security/
opensearch-security-analytics/
opensearch.yml
root-ca.pem
securityadmin_demo.sh*

```

The user tools are supposed to be in `plugins/opensearch-security/tools` but nothing exists there either:

```auto
$ ls -F1 /etc/opensearch/opensearch-security
action_groups.yml
allowlist.yml
audit.yml
config.yml
internal_users.yml
internal_users.yml.original
nodes_dn.yml
opensearch.yml.example
roles_mapping.yml
roles.yml
tenants.yml

```

I do not intend to run the Opensearch Dashboard. I am running Opensearch on a single server bound only to localhost, serving a single web application, so I don’t need much in the way of users, roles, etc – just a non-admin account to point my web app to.

On a related note, I am also unable to change the default admin password I set during installation due to the missing tools.

Is the 3.3.0 documentation out of date or is my installation broken somehow? The service does run and I can connect to it using curl, so it seems ok.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pablo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/pablo/32/10363_2.png) [@pablo](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/pablo)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/trouble-creating-non-admin-user-in-3-3-0/27332/2 "2025-10-21T00:56:09Z")

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Hi @klw, as per OpenSearch documentation, securityadmin.sh is located in `/usr/share/opensearch/plugins/opensearch-security/tools` folder.

> **[Debian](https://docs.opensearch.org/latest/install-and-configure/install-opensearch/debian/#apply-changes)**
>
> Documentation for OpenSearch, the Apache 2.0 search, analytics, and visualization suite with advanced security, alerting, SQL support, automated index management, deep performance analysis, and more.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![klw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@klw](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/klw)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/trouble-creating-non-admin-user-in-3-3-0/27332/3 "2025-10-21T01:45:55Z")

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Thank you! I was looking at other pages that specifically addressed adding users and the like ([for example](https://docs.opensearch.org/latest/security/configuration/yaml/)) and none mentioned the complete path, so was working under the assumption that these tools were in the same place as the user config files, `/etc/opensearch`.

I found the files I thought I was missing. Thanks again.