Catalog Administration is a single-user function. That is, a catalog that is open in Administrator mode cannot be opened by anyone else.
On the Portfolio Server, where catalogs are shared with other users simultaneously, this means that others will not be able to access the catalog while you are using it in Administration mode. When you open a catalog as the Administrator, all other users are locked out.
If other users have the catalog open when you change to Administrator mode, they will be logged off immediately. To prevent this from happening, we suggest that you use options in the Server Administration dialog (unserve command) to give users a time period in which to log themselves off (by closing the catalog), or give them a time period after which they will be logged off.
To prevent users from being logged off inadvertently, a served catalog cannot be opened in Administrator mode, even if you set “Default Open Mode = Administrator” in Edit > Preferences. In this case, the catalog will default to Publisher mode when it opens. You can then alert your users and switch to Administrator level access (Catalog > Access).
While you have the catalog open in Administrator mode it will not appear on the “Connect to Servers” dialog for other users even though the catalog is still being served. To release the catalog for other users, either close it or change to a different access mode (Publisher, Editor, Reader).
For additional information on setting up catalogs on a Portfolio Server, see Server Administration.